Call it the Personal Video Recorder (PVR), the Digital Video Recorder (DVR), the Digital Television Recorder (DTR), or just Armageddon brought to Madison Avenue, this machine excited curiosity and angst from the very beginning due to its destructive potential for ad avoidance. That was at the end of the last millennium, since when the TV advertising industry has learned to take a more relaxed view. Early take-up was much slower than the forecasts had suggested, and once it became possible to measure PVR use electronically, there appeared to be more live viewing and less fast-forwarding through commercials than early market research interviews of PVR owners had suggested. But, it is also clear that the PVR is changing viewing habits over time and take-up in the UK is at last starting to rocket. This report examines current market trends and the impact of the PVR on viewing habits. It also updates our forecasts from April 2006

Ofcom’s second consultation document in its pay-TV investigation has focused on BSkyB’s wholesaling of designated premium film and sports channels, reviving memories of previous regulatory efforts to address the content wholesale/retail issue

We have downgraded our short-term forecasts of TV NAR (net advertising revenue) growth from -5% to -5.75% for 2008 and from -3% to -6% for 2009 in light of the worsening economic conditions and early indications of Q4 advertising spend

2005 was an all time high for total TV net advertising revenues (NAR), even if ITV1, the leading commercial channel, had peaked the year before. 2008 is now proving particularly nasty for everyone as budgets take a plunge in the second half of the year, while expectations are growing that things will only get worse in 2009. This presentation sets out our latest five-year forecasts of total TV and ITV plc NAR, taking into account latest market trading expectations for September and October 2008 and trends in the economy

Prisa, the 98% owner of Sogecable, has put Spain’s leading pay-TV platform Digital+ up for sale in order to make a large reduction in its debts

VMed’s Q2 results represent a further step in the recovery of the business, with fixed line churn continuing to fall and operating cash flow (OCF) continuing to grow, helped by a dramatic improvement in OCF at Virgin Mobile

ITV interim results for 2008 confirmed expectations of a sharp downturn in H1 profits combined with dire predictions for net advertising revenues in the second half of the year, although ITV has so far succeeded in outperforming the rest of the commercial sector in 2008

Another strong quarter of pay-TV and Sky+ growth in the face of a severe retail downturn makes us more confident that Sky will achieve its target of 10 million DTH pay-TV subscribers by the end of calendar 2010 despite falling short of the required run rate of annual net additions in FY 2008

Project Kangaroo, the planned joint venture between BBC Worldwide, ITV and C4 to pool archival resources and supply video-on-demand (VOD) to UK retail and wholesale customers, was referred by the Office of Fair Trading to the Competition Commission on 30th June

The TV advertising sector is haemorrhaging in the economic downturn, but troubles could also be brewing in the pay-TV sector. Sky still looks secure, but Setanta appears more exposed in its role of ancillary pay-TV provider in the high stakes and high risk world of premium sports