WATCH IT YOUR WAY

by Tobey Grumet

1. Spend just a day or two without television and face the perhaps grim reality that TV saturates our lives. Though we all watch tons of television, how much of what we're watching do we really want to see? Enter Replay TV.

2. Replay TV is truly on-demand television without the costly infrastructure or pay-per-view price. Just a black box you hook up to your television.

3. The idea of video on demand is nothing new. Anyone who has stayed in a hotel and used the Spectravision system has gotten a taste of it. For at least a decade, companies have tested the idea of a system that allows consumers to view something when they want to see it, rather than when it's programmed by some exec. In order to get on-demand programming, the customer paid a set fee for each show or movie he chose. If you wanted to see «Casablanca.» you found it in the menu, pressed a button, watched the movie - and got charged on your cable statement.

4. The economic model behind Replay TV is completely different. You pay

one price for the hardware⁵, and that's it. The box hooks up to your television and

receives its broadcast information through a built-in⁶ modem and your telephone

line. In order to make sure of that, there is a mom and pop test.

5. By contrast, Replay TV is simple. The product includes a transparent program guide, which you call up with a remote, allowing you to choose which programming you'd like to record. You can also make what is called a personalized Replay Channel, within simply search the channel guide for shows based on a certain criteria - such as an actor's name, the title of a show or even a genre.

5. Прочтите 5-й абзац текста и письменно ответьте на следующий вопрос:

What does Replay TV include ?