• by Wayne Friedman , September 11, 2008

Digital growth in many TV and related media platforms will continue to see a rapid rise in five years.

By 2012, DVRs will be in nearly 43 million homes--36% of TV households, up from 24% and 27.2 million homes today, according to a report from Interpublic Group of Cos.' Magna group.

Written by Brian Weiser, senior vice president and director of industry analysis for Magna, the report also estimates that true video-on-demand capabilities from cable operators will be in 54% of TV homes, or 63.6 million households, up from 35% of TV homes and 39 million VOD homes now.

Broadband access will continue to rise in five years, climbing to 80.2 million households in five years.

In regard to DVRs, Weiser notes that new network DVRs--devices that are placed in a cable operators' head-end operations, eliminating the need for DVRs in the home--will have a near-term small effect on the growth of DVR in U.S. TV homes.

"Network DVRs could contribute to marginally higher DVR penetration rates," Weiser writes. He notes that the chief advantages of network-DVR systems are lower costs to the cable operator. But given how far other MSOs are down the path with their conventional DVR set-tops, they will take a wait-and-see approach, he adds.

Network DVRs have been challenged in the courts by programmers--specifically with regard to moves by cable operator Cablevision Systems Corp., saying their copyrights have been violated. Programmers are also concerned that these DVRs could contribute to more commercial fast-forwarding by TV viewers.

Recently, a U.S. appeals court overturned a lower court ruling that barred the technology.