Why is DVR not recommended with linear streams?

1. It isn't compatible with most platforms: it only works for viewers who watch on a desktop using certain browsers and operating systems. 

2. Disrupts consistent user experience: because DVR for linear streams is a web-player feature and not supported by most ConnectedTV Apps or mobile native players, making it available for desktop users on the web-player produces an inconsistent user experience as it introduces a feature they will not find, but maybe miss, when watching the same stream on other devices. 

3. Cost & marginal user-base and impact: because only viewers using a specific browser and operating system can use it, the cost-feasibility may not check out. Publishers who publish their 24/7 streams to all platforms, including Roku, FireTV, AppleTV, AndroidTV, SmartTVs, iOS and Android Mobile, the viewership percentage watching on a Windows using a later version of Chrome may be increasingly marking. The cost may not be justifiable given the marginal reach. 

4. Flaws in the user experience: viewers, even on desktops, who use a browser or OS which does not support DVR scrubbing on 24/7 streams (or not any longer), will receive an error when clicking into the timeline. There is also the potential risk that jumping back to real-time is no longer possible after a while as the player’s timeline functionality can reset itself after a longer delayed-viewing period. Only a browser refresh will “reset” the playback at that point, taking the viewer back to real-time. 

5. Potential for confusion and frustration: unintentional triggering of scrubbing back in a timeline can cause great confusion among viewers if they pay attention to the content and program. They may expect a certain program to come up according to the schedule, but it won’t start for them because they are out of sync with the stream having  scrubbed back in the timeline, which can happen unintentional for some viewers. Small screens, dated devices, or desktops with touch screen, can cause the player functions to be rendered differently, or with a very small scale, that unintentional touching of the timeline is a possibility. The same confusion can occur for viewers who may have used the timeline scrubbing intentionally, but have forgotten, or aren’t aware, that they are lagging behind the schedule continuously, even after a longer viewing period. 

But most of all it is a future-proof multi-platform and OTT strategy which goes against the grain of a featured which once may have seemed as technologically sophisticated: user experience (UX), consistency across all platforms, and a strong emphasis on ConnectedTV and on making VOD content available (in user-friendly, browsable archive navigation structures) in addition to linear streams. These are all good reasons not to allow timeline-scrubbing and delayed playback on linear streams, and are also the reason, why this is not a standard featured of Lightcast Service Packages. That said, it is an Add-On feature which can be inquired.