Audio Video News

"Targeted marketing" is one of the most powerful buzz-phrases in the advertising lexicon. In its most benign form, it means simply offering information about products and services to those most likely to want them. In a more malevolent form, it means prying into private citizens' activities to discover what really captivates them.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.panasonic.com">Panasonic</A> announced that it will market hard-disk video recorders with <A HREF="http://www.replaytv.com">ReplayTV</A> technology under the Panasonic brand. The company expects to be one of the first outside Replay Networks, Inc. to market hard-disk recorders with ReplayTV, which allows television viewers to record shows "on the fly" directly onto a built-in hard disk.

Personal video recorder pioneer <A HREF="http://www.tivo.com/">TiVo, Inc.</A> has initiated massive cost-cutting measures in an attempt to remain viable without the need for further external funding.

In case we needed further evidence of the market domination of portable electronics devices, TiVo has announced that a future enhancement of its Series 2 DVRs will allow users to sync to home-networked PCs and then download recorded programs to video iPods and PlayStation Portable media players. TiVo subscribers will be required to buy the software required to drive this enhancement. Although the price for the software hasn't been announced yet, it's anticipated to be low enough to drive sales.