As with many things on the digital highway, technical innovation out paces country boundaries, local laws and the existing market players.

tvcatchup has shown the future of this new content delivery method called the web based Personal Video Recorder (PVR).

The site highlighted a better way to do things. They found a gap in the market.

I fully expect other web based PVR sites and services to fill the void.

It's an technical innovation inevitability!

Also I would expect tvcatchup.com to reappear in due course, though without the video sharing/lending amongst members. It may be hosted outside the UK.


Good posting by David Owen at
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02...wned/comments/


"When are the broadcasters going to realise they are fighting a loosing battle here?

At the moment, each national broadcaster insists on the consumer installing their own PVR/time-shifting software (e.g. iplayer, Sky Anyime, 4oD). What ever happened to open standards?! Why on earth should I have to install a separate software application for each set of channels!?

They are also trying clinging on to this notion of geographc 'syndication', when the market for content is truely global (does anyone not have a region-free DVD player now?). There is a vested interest in retaining the model where a single TV show is sold to each national broadcaster, rather than directly to consumers.

What consumers actually want is a solution that allows them to catch content from anywhere in the world, without being constrained by a particular broadcaster or geography. The actual mechanics of how this business model will make money (e.g. advertising or subscription) will work itself out...."