Tivo's contribution to the new economy...

More on the previous posting.

Tivo has made the exact same contribution to the entertainment economics. Prime Time is essentially the corresponding limitation in shelf space that a brick and mortar store has. Most people had limited time each day where they were available to watch something, and the television stations had to program to those time slots, which meant that there was limited choice in shows.

Although Cable and Satellite TV has increased the number of channels to choose from, Tivo has broken the time barrier. This means that a program's draw is not limited by the time in which it's aired. Instead of focusing on 18 hours of programming per week, a station has 168 hours of programming available. With Tivo, a show airing at 3am has the same opportunity to be watched as one airing at 9pm. This means that cable channels who want to steal market share can take risks that they wouldn't have otherwise been able to take.

I believe my own watching patterns bear this out. Now that I have Tivo, my watching patterns are completely different than they were before (in other words, now that I have more opportunities for choice, I watch a completely different set of shows).

What's even more interesting is that I've recently started watching very well written and well executed original programming on USA Network, TNT, the SciFi Channel, TLC, the History Channel, and the Science Channel.

With the exception of two shows (that are currently on summer break), the fiction I watch is on USA Network, SciFi, and TNT. I'm completely hooked on:

1. The 4400
2. Battlestar Galactica
3. The Closer
4. Alias
5. The West Wing

What's really surprising to me is that the first 2 were around last season and I missed out on both of them. Fortunately, USA ran all the original season of the 4400 prior to this season premier and I was able to get caught up (again a wonderful thing from Tivo). It's surprising to me that these 3 shows have enough funding (but I believe that Tivo and other DVRs had a big impact... otherwise, DreamWorks and the other large studios producing some of these shows wouldn't be able to make their money back).

On the Non-Fiction front, I'm currently hooked on the following:

1. MythBusters
2. American Chopper
3. Biography
4. Modern Marvels
5. Nanny 911
6. Extreme Makeover Home Edition

I used to be hooked on What not to Wear, but it's been pushed out by the other items on the list.

Now, as a parent, I could also talk about how Tivo has allowed me to (1) give my children more choice over what they watch, while at the same time (2) give me more control over what they watch. Can you guess whether Dragonball Z or SpongeBob is set to record on my Tivo???