Still Too Many Moving Parts

As I write this, my Tivo box is madly clicking away - the sound of the hard drive recording something or other. Virgin Media proudly boast this dreadful box as the best way to watch TV, but to me it seems archaic.

Nearly a decade ago we developed a system at Narrowstep that would allow a viewer to browse around an EPG and watch anything. Only the requested programmes were streamed and there was no need for moving parts, or indeed, a set tob box, at all. How little things have changed.

The term 'Cloud PVRs' is now being used to describe this technology and there are gradual moves in this direction by some of the major broadcasters in the UK such as the BBC, which allow you to catch up from a timeline on some of their iPlayer interfaces.

But, such is the fragmented nature of our industry that this is unlikely to happen any time soon, although I'm sure Google must be keeping a beady eye on the situation.