Here Come PVRs

Is Network TV Doomed? Personal video recorders that allow ad-free viewing could change broadcasting

How much would you pay never to see another talking frog or battery-powered bunny again? To program your own all-Luke Perry channel? To add impromptu bathroom breaks to live broadcasts? Replay Networks and TiVo, creators of new digital-TV recording devices, are popping the question, working to persuade you to add yet another cube to the towering ziggurat of entertainment--cable box, VCR, DVD and video-game player--on your TV table. They say their new gadgets could just change TV itself in the process, a possibility that has the networks more than a little nervous. Lawyers have been summoned.

Personal video recorders, or PVRs...

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