[John Corn]

It's the personal video recorder, or PVR, better known under the brand names TiVo and ReplayTV. The contraption in effect computerizes your television, giving you the ability to pause live broadcasts and record shows on a hard drive with ease and precision.

These products aren't cheap, starting at $399 and often tacking on monthly fees. They've been around since 1999, but just this year passed the 1 million mark sold to date, and sales are accelerating.

Hollywood has become very concerned.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techreviews/products/2002-08-12-pvr-tv_x.htm

 

[Karl Foster]

"You don't have to be a genius to realize this is a very serious threat to TV advertising," Bernoff says. "The 30-second ad that we've all grown up with is endangered. There will be product placement, more sole sponsorship of programs, creative ways around this."

Just like every other industry that has to evolve to survive, the advertising industry must evolve also. They'll have to pry my PVR's remote out of my cold, dead fingers (perhaps a bit of an overstatement) before I give it up so I can see Coke commercials and watch programming when the networks tell me I have to.