New Technology Reviews!.: prefer-watching

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0.6em;">
<div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;">
<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="150" mce_src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//classifications/home-entertainment/tv/TiVo%20Box%20and%20Remote-200-200.jpg" src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//classifications/home-entertainment/tv/TiVo%20Box%20and%20Remote-200-200.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 640px;" width="200" /></div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Virgin Media's TiVo hard disk recorder and on-demand set top box has changed the way people find and view TV programmes, according to the fibre-optic entertainment supremo.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
A quarter of its users forgo the electronic programme guide (EPG) favoured by other set top boxes, instead preferring TiVo's intelligent search feature.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Half of these searches are for programmes that aren't in audience research company BARB's top fifty for the UK - which means more people are seeking out programmes, rather being spoon-fed the top result on the EPG.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
According to Virgin Media's second 'Entertainment Index', the top ten customer searches were:</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
1. The Apprentice<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />2. Camelot<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />3. Doctor Who<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />4. House<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />5. Glee<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />6. EastEnders<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />7. Dexter<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />8. Casualty<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />9. Desperate Housewives<br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5;" />10. Fringe</div>
<h4 style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">
Too demanding</h4>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Dexter and Fringe aren't broadcast on conventional 'terrestrial' channels, instead being shown on FX and Sky1 respectively which, Virgin Media reckons, reinforces the prominence of "word of mouth social recommendations or marketing campaigns".</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
What Virgin Media hasn't revealed is the number of people who prefer watching on-demand to recording on the TiVo's hard drive, so it's not clear if the Tivo's 1TB of storage is proving increasingly redundant.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
At 484 million views in the first half of 2011, Virgin Media's on-demand service is still dwarfed by the BBC iPlayer - which achieved 175 million views in December 2010 alone.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The company believes it's on track to achieve one billion views this year, but this could be a drop in the ocean compared to the (free) iPlayer's results.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
We doubt Virgin is too worried though. It's already delivered Britain's fastest fibre-optic broadband to many homes, and many will take out a TV package at the same time.</div>
</div>
</span></div>

Virgin Media's TiVo is 'changing telly habits'

Virgin Media's TiVo hard disk recorder and on-demand set top box has changed the way people find and view TV programmes, according ...