THE PAST: VCRThe VCR played an active role in the early stages of time-shifting, particularly popular through the 80’s and 90’s, along with its counterparts, the VHS and the Camcorder. Although audiences were able to record programs to VHS to watch at a time better suited to them, in order to utilise the VCR as a time-shifting device, they would need to pre-plan what they wanted to watch and organise themselves in advance.
Due to this technique, it still enabled broadcasters to dictate when each show was scheduled and was not as convenient as it was a manual process that involved users to physically having to be in front of their television sets. This reflects the concept of space-shifting that has since been introduced with mobile technology in order to counteract this flaw. VHS mail out were an early form of on-demand, though again, this was a manual process rather than one that is relevant to technologies. The decline of the VHS and VCR occurred in late 1998, when DVDs and DVD players became the dominant medium for entertainment with Australian audiences. Next Page ➤ |