Today, at the Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) TV Summit, “Television¿s On-Demand Transformation,” 200 senior executives in the cable, satellite, and broadcast industries, marketing executives, and IT professionals will learn when on-demand TV will take off and how it will reshape the television business. The one-day Summit is being held at the Millennium Broadway in New York.

The event will analyze the impact of fast-growing television services like personal video recorders and video on-demand. These services, which will reach a total of 12 million US consumers by the end of 2002, give consumers unprecedented ability to control the television experience — including the ability, in some cases, to skip commercials.

“New technologies are reshaping the television industry like never before in history,” said Chris Charron, group director at Forrester. “Personal video recorders and video-on-demand services are allowing consumers to watch television on their own schedule, not the networks’ schedule. As a result, TV executives and marketers have to rethink the way they reach and retain TV viewers.

“We look forward to sharing the results of our extensive consumer research, which shows that on-demand TV is here to stay. To succeed, networks, advertisers, cable and satellite operators, and producers have to start by understanding consumer behavior, attitudes, and expectations. The discussion here today will provide a road map for industry executives to prepare for — and profit from — the shift to on-demand TV,” added Charron.

Industry speakers include:

  • David G. Barford, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Charter Communications
  • Michael Ramsay, Chairman and CEO, TiVo
  • John J. Sie, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Starz Encore Group
  • David Verklin, CEO, Carat North America
  • Robert Zitter, Senior Vice President, Technology Operations, HBO
  • Martin J. Yudkovitz, President, NBC Digital Media, NBC

Forrester speakers include:

  • Chris Charron, Group Director
  • Charlene Li, Research Director
  • Josh Bernoff, Principal Analyst