The Ultimate Remote Control Posted on May 19, 2011 Post a comment

Time shifting is so 2010. Let’s talk about place shifting.

When TiVo® launched in the U.S. in 1999, it changed the face of television forever. No longer was must-see TV dictated by the networks’ schedules. Consumers had the newfound freedom to watch their favorite programs whenever they wanted.

Today, that freedom has reached a whole new level. Not only can you watch whenever you want, you can watch wherever you want. Time shifting has collided with place shifting and the population at large is never looking back. Case in point: The royal wedding.

YouTube reported that it delivered 72 million live streams of the royal nuptials worldwide through its dedicated channel. And that total doesn’t even count the live streams by all of the major television and cable networks or Livestream. People all across the globe were consuming the same content through a seemingly endless series of diverse media channels.

So what’s the big deal? It’s simple. Viewers no longer have to miss out on programming just because they aren’t in front of their TV. This is the defining factor of what will most certainly be deemed a new era of broadcasting. Rather than watching less, it’s likely that viewers will consume increasingly more content because the rules have officially changed. Now it’s not only on their own time, but also on their own turf.