Weekend Spy: Digital killed the VCR

If you’ve got digital TV and an analogue video recorder, you’ll already know that you can't watch one channel and record another at the same time. So, what are you going to do when we all switch over to digital, and you can’t rely on the analogue signal as a back up any more?

Figures published by Digital UK in February showed that only 29% of people in the UK understand the limitations of recording digital TV with an analogue VCR. There are currently around 32 million analogue VCRs and DVD recorders in the UK, with many more still being sold. With an analogue VCR you are able to record a different TV channel to the one being watched. So if you’ve bought a VCR in the last year or so, you’re going feel a bit miffed that come switchover, part of its functionality will be obsolete. Nearly half of VCR usage involves recording one programme while watching another. And with more channels being launched on digital television in the future, that scenario is going to happen more frequently. So what is being done to make consumers aware of this issue?

Roger Matthews, sales and marketing director for digital terrestrial pay TV service Top Up TV, thinks more could be done at the point of purchase: "I’m amazed that retailers are still selling analogue VCRs and analogue digital recorders. It is going to hit the industry quite hard when consumers realise it’s more complicated to record another programme to the one you’re watching. There is a lot of work to be done in that area."

In the US, there has been talk of making it a legal requirement for retailers to clearly state that an analogue recording device will not be able to perform certain functions when the country goes digital in 2009. Though the UK is restricted, in part, by EU regulations (due to some EU countries’ switchover dates being many years away) does Matthews think something should be done here stop less-savvy consumers wasting money? "I think consumers should know what they’re buying, and how long that functionality is going to work for. So if they are buying a DVR, and it doesn’t have that functionality, they need to know that in a year or so they are going to have to buy some more pieces of kit or replace it."

There are other ways you can record digital TV other than purchasing a digital TV recorder like Freeview Playback. which are priced around £100 upwards. A previous suggestion by Digital UK has been to buy another set top box and plug one into the TV and one into the video. Roger Matthews believes that while Digital UK has done excellent work in raising the general awareness of switchover – now at 80% nationally – he hopes this year the focus will be on recording. "Digital UK have done a fantastic job educating consumers about digital switchover in general, and I think you can see that coming through on the amount of digital TVs being sold. However, I think there is a lack of understanding among consumers about what is going to happen with recording come digital switchover. [With switchover] it was complicated to tell consumers everything they needed to know in one bite. I think the education has done very well, but the recording medium now needs to catch up, and it needs to catch up very quickly."

While new figures to be published this week are likely to show a slight increase in awareness of video functionality, more needs to be done, especially with analogue videos still being sold. Digital UK say local radio initiatives in the first switchover areas have worked well, and there will be more ‘awareness building’ activity like this later this year.

If you haven’t got a personal video recorder such as the Virgin Media V+HD or the Sky+ service, you will probably start considering a new digital television recorder with a twin tuner as your next purchase. In its own efforts to raise awareness of the digital switchover recording ‘issue’, Top Up TV is pushing its own digital television recorder. Its Anytime Box goes for about £140 (for new customers, including connection), plus there’s the option of paying £9.99 per month for 19 digital channels that you can’t get with Freeview, like Living TV, UKTV Gold and, at a slight extra cost, Setanta Sports.

Matthews extols the virtues of the box, even if you don’t subscribe: "If you buy a Top Up TV box from a retailer you don’t have to subscribe there and then, but you are ‘future proofing’ yourself. From a consumer's perspective our boxes are very good DTRs, but we’re offering further content that you can switch on, if you want to, in the future. I think that’s quite important in a market that changes very quickly, with content jumping from one channel to another. Certainly from a sports perspective, over the last 12 months we’ve seen it move from Sky to Setanta, and really for a DTR which is the same price as its market place equivalent, it’s a great proposition," he says.

Across the wider market, Sky has undoubtedly done the best job in making people aware of the time-saving functionality and convenience of digital video recorders. Its Sky+ service has become a major success, and accounts for around 25% of its 8.49 million strong subscriber base. "Sky have clearly done a good job of getting the DTR message out there with Sky+, but not everybody wants Sky+, and the message has got to be ‘once you have a DTR it does change the way you watch TV.’ It doesn’t matter if you watch [programmes] half an hour late or three days late. For instance, programmes on Channel 4, I watch in 40 minutes rather than an hour. Though it’s not good for the advertisers, it’s good for my time. So it’s all about customer education about what DTRs can actually do. I think we’re starting to get penetration of DTRs - you’ll know at least one or two people who have them," Matthews adds.

For the technically minded out there, there is now software on the market that converts your PC into a digital TV recorder without having to buy any new kit. With research this week showing that 45% of Europeans are watching some television online, will this cheaper route become more popular over time? "I think some people will go down that route, but the number of people with the technical nouse and the will to have that technology on their computer – which may not be in the living room – is a pretty small proportion of the population. And if DTRs were [prohibitively] priced at £750 and there was a cheaper option that was more complicated, I could see people going for it. But our DTR and others are priced around £149: it’s a price where consumers will ‘take them off the shelf’ rather than take a ‘Heath Robinson’ approach. Though I think there will be generational shift: when my kids grow up they will have been used to watching TV on laptops and PCs from when they were very young. But for a vast proportion of consumers the majority of content will be viewed on the main TV set."

With sports channel Setanta launching its premiership and FA Cup football coverage next season, the ability DTRs have to pause live football is likely to become a proposition customers will want to buy into. So as awareness of the recording issue grows, and Digital UK and others start to increase activity in this area, Matthews thinks we’re likely to see a dramatic rise in sales later this year. "DTR sales have been increasing year-on-year, and I think towards the final quarter of this year we’ll see a surge of sales because of the PR from Digital UK, Freeview and ourselves. And when regions start to be switched off it will become a more pressing issue within the minds of consumers to sort out their recording functionality," he says.