Here is a paragraph from a Forbes.com article on the impact of DVR (Digital Video Recorders - TiVo) on the broadcast industry:

No problem, net execs say: While DVRs and other gear may proliferate, most viewers won't use the gadgets as ad-killers or pay for commercial-free programs. "This is the big myth. The big majority of people are not commercial avoiders," says David Poltrack, the head of CBS research and strategic planning, who has heard predictions of the networks' demise for 20 years. At worst, he figures, DVRs will erode audience by just under 3% a year. Alan Wurtzel, NBC's research head, says that networks can survive such losses, pointing to the huge checks that advertisers just wrote: "Until you can find an alternative that's better, they really will have no choice."

What can you say about that? How about this one?:

"What I feel absolutely confident is going to happen is this: The traditional 30-second commercial will continue to prosper, and TiVo and Replay will never amount to much more than a minor irritant to the TV networks," Rance Crain, the editor-in-chief of Advertising Age, wrote in a column earlier this year.

Reminds me of these quotes on computers:

"Where a calculator on the ENIAC the original computer is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1 ½ tons" -- Popular Mechanics, March 1949

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." -- IBM Chairman Thomas Watson, 1943

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." -- DEC Chairman Ken Olson, 1977

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, 1981

(Quotes from here)