Breaking the Schedule; Or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Betamax/VHS/DVR/Online Streaming Service
By vampyrsqvid
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Sony introduces Betamax in the US
T: Betamax was the first commercially available consumer videocassette format, and was aggresively marketed for its ability to "time shift." Time shifting was a marketing term developed by Sony to denote the ability to record off air and watch a program later at one's convenience. Early commercials featured Count Dracula stating, "When you work nights like I do, you miss an awful lot of programs." -
Copyright Act of 1976
S: The Copyright Act of 1976. Motion pictures and other audioviisual works are one of seven categories of authored works protected by copyright. Also Fair Use is codified for the first time. -
RCA and JVC introduce VHS format
T: VHS relatively quickly edges Betamax out of the market. It sacrificed image quality for capacity, so feature length movies could be seen uninterrupted. It combined demand for home movies, home screening of features, and time shifting. The sacrifice in image quality native to the format and higher amount of signal loss from copying to new tapes led there to be less outcry from content producers as well. -
1.8 million VCRs in use in the US
E: from Enticknap. -
The Betamax Ruling
S: Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. AKA The Betamax Case/Ruling. Universall sued on behalf of angry mass copyright owners to decry time shifting. The Supreme Court initially seems to favor Universal, but at then end the case goes to Betamax 5-4. Time shifting is determined to be fair use of copyrighted material. -
The Spot premieres
C: The Spot, created by Scott Zakarin, premieres. A "cyber soap-opera,' the show is credited in some sources as coining the term webisode. The site not only allowed viewing of programming but also let visitors communicate with the characters via e-mail. Interesting note: Both the article used for this event and the one describing the release of Arrested Development in 2013 relate their respective shows to Rashomon due to the story telling possibilities opened up by escaping broadcast television. -
86 million VCRs in use (US)
E: from Enticknap. Figure represents 90% of TV households. -
VCR Use
C: This is from Enticknap, who does not state the source of the study, "In 1995 a prominent television industry body published its belief that the average VCR owner possesses a permanent library of between 100 and 200 hours of programming." The main point here being that people definitely made use of time shifting, and also that this use was HARD TO TRACK. -
DVD format released (US)
T: The Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) supplants VHS as a format, but only in the level of demand for home screenings of feature films. The demand for time shifting is generally not met by DVD players, as only a few models offer recording, and so this format will not be discussed more, as it is only important to note that this is how VHS dies. -
Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998
S: Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998 among other things codified copy protection methods for digital video and ways that online service providers can mitigate their liability of providing copyrighted material through procedures involving notifications and takedown of works displayed without permission from copyright holders. Harshly criticized for many reasons by those wanting more liberal definitions of copyright in the digital age. -
First TiVo DVR Shipped
T: The first TiVo digital video recorder is shipped. This can be seen as filling the time shift demand left open by the blossoming DVD format. Competitor ReplayTV was also released in this year, but did not perform commercially like TiVo. It faced early legal issues due to features involving commercial skipping and deletion, which end up in later model DVRs anyway. Also to note here is the eventual proliferation of DVRs, which are integrated with DVDR, cable boxes, TVs themselves, etc -
Broadband Penetration Statistic
E/C: Broadband Penetration for American Adults, 33%. -
30 Rock
C: 30 Rock premieres. Included because the show, especially in later years, features many gags about the decline of broadcast television. -
Google Announces Purchase of YouTube
T/C/E: Google announces it will purchase YouTube for $1.65 billion, barely more than year after the site was founded. Move emphasizes the potential value and high demand for online video content. The site continues to dominate online viewership. -
YouTube Founded
T: YouTube is founded. -
DVR Market Penetration Statistic
E: Percentage of TV households with DVR: 13.5%. -
Hulu
T/C/E: Hulu launches. This is more or less coincident with Netflix launching its online streaming portion of its service. Both are highly popular examples of services and apps that are hard to count now allowing on-demand viewing of a catalog of television shows and movies for a subscription fee. The essential trend shown at work is that moving images are watched not only on televisions, but computers, tablets, phones, basically anything with a screen and internet, and whenever the user wants. -
Netflix
T/C/E: Netflix, founded in 1999, launches its streaming service for instant watching of television and movies. At the end of the year its membership is 7.5 million users. -
PRO-IP Act of 2008
S: the PRO-IP Act of 2008 (Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Prperty). Increases penalties for trademark, patent, and copyright infringements. It also provides the ability to the Justice Department to pursue civil suits on behalf of rights holders. Now the attorney general can litigate on behalf of groups like the RIAA or MPAA. -
DVR Penetration Statistic
E: Percentage of TV households with DVR: 35.7%. -
2010 Online Video Statistics
C: 2010 unique daily online video viewers: 73.7 million. 2010 videos viewed: 30.1 billion. -
DVR Penetration Statistic
E: Percentage of TV households with DVR: 39.7%. -
TiVo partners with Comcast to support on-demand features
T/C/E: Standalone TiVo decks are now less popular as television providers are incorporating the technology into their own cable and satellite boxes. -
2011 Online video statistics
C: 2011 average daily unique video viewers: 105.1 million. 2011 videos viewed: 43.5 billion. This comment pertains to the similar 2010 event also, as it comes from the same graph. Online video viewership includes television programming but also includes a larger subset including Vimeo, YouTube, Vevo and other providers. NOTE: the statistic refers to the month of December only, not the entire year, which adds some gravity to the total videos viewed figures. -
Online Video providers share of videos viewed statistic
E: The graphic represents the percentage share of content each service owned of the 43.5 billion online videos viewed in December 2011. Google services (including YouTube at this point) is in first by a staggering share at 50.4%. Other recognizable names such as Hulu, Netflix, and Vevo had between 1% and 2% each, to compare. This graph also reveals the staggering number of services available since the "other" category is in second place, with 38.3%. -
Netflix Statistic
C/E: Netflix membership surpasses 30 million globally. -
Arrested Development Netflix Original
C: The fourth season of Arrested Development is released all at once on Netflix. This is not the first series created by a streaming service, but it is included because it has been one of the most popular so far and because of the show's construction. The plot is not linear episode to episode, but the season portrays a set of events from many different perspectives. A signal of what can be allowed in the streaming format when many epiodes can be made available simultaneously. -
Aereo Court Wins
S: This date marks the most recent in a series of court wins by Aereo against broadcasting companies. The Aereo app records off the air TV and streams it to users on computers, phones, and tablets for a fee of $8 per month. The company itself pays nothing to broadcasters. -
Broadband Penetration Statistic
E/C: Broadband Penetration for American Adults 2013: 70%.
