DVRs vs TV Spots

As all of this season's TV series premier, it is once again a war of networks. One network's big show on Thursday night at 7pm versus another other network's big show on Thursday night at 7pm. They spend millions of advertising dollars attempting to influence you to watch one network over the other. But, are they really competing against each other?

An old friend of mine commented that the networks are still competing against time slots in the old fashioned way but, due to the traditional overlapping of competing shows on different channels, they are limiting people from DVR'ing these shows due to DVR simultaneous recording conflicts. The competing time slot is now the viewing audience obstacle and no longer the viewing audience option.

Just from my own experience, it is rare to watch a show completely live any longer. So in the time-slot wars of network's past, they should ask themselves if they are truly competing with each other - or are they competing against current recording technology? Some of these new technologies are better than others, and this can be seen as the battle of the DVRs and cable/dish providers are competing (stay tuned for this battle).

Sometimes, it is easy to just keep fighting the same battle and forget (or not realize) that times change and you must not just re-evaluate your marketing, sales, technology, etc - but you must also constantly re-evaluate who (or what) you are really competing against.