I can’t see many people being bothered that they can’t record ‘Dave’ !!
Very few channels past the major players are worth recording, or even watching for that matter.

Most Freesat viewers will find that the recorder does everything they need it to – and then some.

And, no one’s going to be rushing to build a box to fill the tiny niche in the market, either.

The Freesat PVR is a satellite PVR. Nothing more. Just like almost every other PVR out there.

Nigel, regarding 5, you have remember that a lot of the country can’t receive it even with analogue.

With Digital, its not about time spent on any one channel. With so many channels of course anything outside of the major 2 or 3 isn’t going to have huge figures.

Equally though, as I wrote above, Digital is about choice. Programming is quite poor on a lot of the major channels so nowadays people mix and match. Just because someone watches a channel for only 1 program a day doesn’t mean they wouldn’t miss it if it has something on that fills the void when there’s nothing on the others. Thats hardly a good reason for not supporting recording when the majority now watch this way and popularity and quality change with time but a PVR is fixed when bought which is why it needs to have the ability to record anything you’re ever likely to built in at purchase.

A good example on how channels change in popularity is Channel 5.

Channel 5 used to be the worst channel on analogue in my opinion when it 1st came out. In my opinion, its now the best. I now watch more on channel 5 than any other channel: Neighbours, Home and Away, Ice Road Truckers, Axe Men, CSI, NCIS, Football Matches, quite a few quality films, Fifth Gear, House, Grey’s Anatomy, Party Poker, House Doctor etc. Whilst that selection my not appeal to everyone, every channel has programs that do.

If any of the other channels improve as Channel 5 has done and the PVR doesn’t support them, then its too late to do anything about it later.

For the week ending 7th September this year, according to BARB, even five managed only a 50% reach, and a 4.3% share. Of the others, Dave was the highest rated, with 1.2% share and 24% reach; Sky Sports News (no chance of that ever appearing) 13.5 reach, 1.0% share.

Next largest share is 0.6%, for five US and Sky 3 with reach of 10 and 17.8% respectively. Fiver, Sky News and Virgin 1 all languish on 0.5% share (same as BBC4, incidentally), UK TV History manages 0.3% share, while that of Nuts is not measurable, and it had only a 1.9% reach.

So, none of the missing ones is really setting the living rooms of the UK alight. Dave’s reach is pretty impressive – but it’s built on an average of just 18 minutes per person.