I, Cringely: Life With TiVo. "Cut away all the technical trappings of television and you are left with only three basic components -- the shows, the business (which usually means the commercials), and the schedule... The goal of every broadcaster is to command his or her time slot, offering a show that is so compelling that everyone within range will stop whatever they are doing to watch that show.

DVRs take away the power of programmers and allow us to watch what we want to watch when we want to watch it.

The second thing broadcasters can do is make cheaper shows that reflect the lower revenue potential of programming in the TiVo era. That’s where all the reality shows came from because they not only draw good audiences, they are also cheap to produce.

The third thing networks can do to find revenue when viewers refuse to watch commercials is to change the definition of what is a commercial." Wither the content? Grow, the personalized content!