TiVo coming for Australia! Be still my beating heart!

Oh, what a day! Google announces Cogs and Maps Mashups, Apple releases iTunes 7.2 with a DRM-free music catalogue, and now the news that Seven Media Group is finally going to introduce some real competition in the Australian DVR market with the fabled and marvellous TiVo in 2008.

There's no ad-skip button, presumably a concession in return for being able to count on the other networks' participation in FreeTV's coming electronic program guide. But what the heck, the FF button will do just fine.

Yes, sure, we'll be watching the ads, and no doubt some of the marketing viruses will still get in... those that are able to withstand 16x playback!

clipped from australianit.news.com.au THE Seven Media Group is taking on pay-TV group Foxtel's dominance of the digital video recorder market with a new alliance to introduce the TiVo digital recorder to Australia by 2008, even though it enables faster forwarding of ads. Seven Media Group, a joint venture between the Seven Network and US private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, is teaming with the Nasdaq-listed DVR group TiVo in a move it hopes will revolutionise free-to-air TV. Bridget Godwin, head of policy and regulatory affairs at the Seven Network, said the free-to-air TV industry supported an industry-wide EPG and concerns that Nine or Ten would not participate were moot given the participation of the industry body, FreeTV. The service does not have an ad-skip component, is copy-protected and will be able to update its software when required through downloads.