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Can TiVo keep the sports dollars flowing?

CNN Money has an article about sports being "TiVo-proof", since folks are much more likely to watch it live, so networks can charge more money for advertisers.

That's all well and good, but the premise of the article is brain-dead to me. Networks still see DVR owners as "stealing" their broadcasts if they watch them as recordings, so watching live TV is more profitable to them. But that ignores the possibility that live sports are one of the best reasons to own a TiVo, and I wonder how sports fans live without them. While it's true I'll watch sports nearly live (sometimes I wait 30min for TiVo to record so I can skip the commercials and breaks), it also means I get to pick when I want to do an instant replay. I get to pause video to have arguments with friends whether a foot was in bounds or not, and I can watch a great touchdown pass as many times as I want. While I may skip a few commercials, I'll often watch good ones more than once, since the best commercials often come out during sporting events.

The other major obvious point that networks aren't getting is that a sports-loving DVR owner will watch more sports, not less. That means they're likely to even pay for it, as I'm sure DirecTV has found with their NFL Ticket. Perhaps networks need to dig deep and come up with better ideas than simple advertising, and stop thinking of ways to "TiVo-proof" their broadcasts.

by Matt Haughey October 15, 2004 in News

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