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On February 15th, TVCatchup.com, a website that recorded TV shows from U.K. broadcasters to allow viewers to watch them online, was shut down by its hosting provider.
A message on the website was posted saying in part:

“On 15th February, our hosting was terminated without warning and we presume this was at the request of such Broadcasters. Given that this will no doubt happen again, TVCatchup has therefore voluntarily suspended its services whilst the concerns of the Broadcasters are addressed.”

The website recorded the TV shows from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five and posted them on the Internet so anyone could catch up and watch shows whenever they’d like.  The BBC was onto them in December 2007, calling it a “personal online VCR”. (VCR, how quaint!)

Sounds like an, um, interesting–and ill-fated–business model.  TVCatchup supposedly had 5,000 test users and some advertisers on the website before it was forced to shut down.  Before the company fully launched, the CEO of TVCatchup, Adam Smith, said that they were acting within UK laws. Guess that’s not true.

Broadcasters saw this as a violation of their rights since they hadn’t give TVCatchup permission to record and stream their shows online. Plus, the BBC has been putting its shows online via its BBC iPlayer to let viewers catch up to shows they may have missed.

Finally, the broadcasters complaint was enough to have the hosting provider shut down the web site.

Fortunately, many of these shows (and lots more) are likely available for free anyway on BitTorrent.

[tags] BBC, TVCatchup, TVCatchup.com, BitTorrent, iPlayer, BBC iPlayer [/tags]

According to research from Ofcom, U.K.’s communications regulator, over 75% of people using time-shifting in the U.K. say they always or almost always fast forward through commercials. The study looked at both DVR users and other time-shifted viewing.

More specifically, Ofcom found that 40% of DVR users fast forward through commercials regularly, while 58% have ever done it.

This goes against what many surveys in the U.S. claim: that people are more interested in time-shifting rather than skipping commercials.

For example, research from the Liechtmann Group found that just 8% of DVR users say the ability to skip commercials is the main benefit of owning a DVR.

And another story from the NY Times recently reported that DVR owners watch about 40% of commercials.

Informitv says:

“The latest research by Ofcom…confirms anecdotal accounts, suggesting that skipping commercials is much more popular than the television industry tends to admit.”

The numbers are just everywhere on this.

So what about the anecdotal evidence? I always ask people I know if they skip through commercials and many say they never watch them. Researchers, however, say the opposite? Who do we believe? Who can advertisers believe? Can someone provide a definitive answer?

Bonus: Go to Ofcom’s site to download the report, which is split into about three different PDFs.

Bonus #2: Additionally, Ofcom found that 15% of U.K. homes have a DVR either through Sky+, V+ or Freeview DVR.

[tags] Ofcom, DVR, PVR, digital video recorder, advertising, Tivo, research [/tags]