The transition to all-digital TV transmissions has brought difficulties in recording linear broadcasts with traditional VCR and DVD recorders necessitating that consumers look to new solutions to view time-shifted content. The increasing proliferation of portable media players (PMPs) is also fuelling consumer demand for place-shifting by side-loading content onto these devices. These demands are currently, in the eyes of many consumers, being best met by online services including; device-oriented services (such as iTunes and Vudu), open downloads, broadcaster catch-up offerings and virtual PVRs services. Whilst both operator-supplied and FTA PVR set-top boxes are meeting time-shifting demands they are falling short of place-shifting expectations making their expensive prices difficult to justify. Bringing free online catch-up content to TV screens could prove a valued additional feature for CanalSat's PVR customers. Few pay TV operators, with CanalSat the notable exception, offer side-loading services often citing content owner concern over piracy as the significant barrier. Consumers want these services and pay TV operators will need to provide them to remain relevant to consumer demands.

Walled-garden offerings such as Vudu and Apple's iTunes revolve around selling rights managed content to be played on dedicated consumer electronic devices. These devices are often considerably more visually appealing than most pay TV STBs and often include innovative user interfaces. Pay TV operators are slowly beginning to react to this with an increasing number unifying the aesthetic design of STBs sourced from different manufacturers and introducing platform level middleware and electronic programme guides across these STBs. The +Le Cube box's LCD panel is yet another step away from the "ugly black box under the TV" view of the STB held by many consumers.

Operator demand for advanced technologies and increased attention to aesthetic design represents a real opportunity for pay TV technology partners which will increasingly find innovation commanding higher consumer prices. An opportunity also exists to supply pay TV technology to these new online PVR services, evidenced by Motorola supplying set-top boxes to Finnish online PVR service TVKaista. However, the legitimacy of online PVRs remains to be proven. French online PVR service Wizzgo has struggled to justify its business model under the glare of intellectual rights law with courts granting injunctions preventing Wizzgo from recording content from a group of French broadcasters including France televisions, TF1, M6, W9 and NT1. The contentious issue hinges on the fact that the recording does not take place in a domestic premise, at which point it is covered by the same fair-use legislation applied to VHS and DVD recorders.