Will TiVo kill television, or are viewers too lazy to zap?(TV Buyer)(personal video recorders)

Broadcasting & Cable, September, 2003 by McClellan, Steve

Jamie Kellner, chairman of The WB, joked last week that TiVo-type personal video recorders were developed by the print-advertising business to annihilate the TV medium. But he quickly made it clear that, while that remark was facetious, the TiVo threat is serious. Ogilvy & Mather CEO Shelly Lazarus, appearing on the same panel as Kellner at an ad conference sponsored last week by The New Yorker magazine disagreed, arguing that most viewers are so passive they won't make the effort to zap commercials.

Not only is the PVR a "great threat at high penetration levels" to ad-supported TV networks, said Kellner, "it might not be good for consumers either." That's because, if a sizeable portion of the $50 billion or so in TV advertising goes away...

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