Slashdot Mirror
Kellner Says Commerical-Skip Worth $250/year
Steve B writes: "A sequel to Turner CEO: "PVR Users Are Thieves" -- according to this story reported by Broadcasting & Cable, our friend Jamie Kellner says that consumers should be prepared to pay "as much as $250 per year" for the privilege of zapping over commercials. BTW, I'm not being entirely sarcastic when I call Kellner "our friend" -- if we properly exploit this story as an example of why Hollywood wants control over our consumer electronics, Kellner just might dig their graves with his big mouth."
With DirecTv, I pay an extra $13 a month for HBO. That buys me not just the ability to watch television without commercial interruption, but also television without commercial interference.
By which I mean, they're not bleeped, cut or badly overdubbed when someone swears. I can see the actresses breasts whenever the director felt it artistically valid to show them.
And, let's face it, shows like Larry Sanders, Dennis Miller Live and Mr Show would never have been made on networks that had to pander to the advertising dollar.
So, Mr Kellner, here's the deal. For my annual $250, I demand to see programming that isn't lowest common denominator bullshit that only exists to fill the time between you showing me the clips trying to convince me to buy more cornflakes.
Sound good?
rOD.
Rod Begbie done this, and he's not
I'm not sure why broadcasters are up in arms about PVRs skipping adverts. Anyone who records a program rather than watch it live is going to forward through the adverts anyway, when they get around to watching it. Advertisers already know this, and they're still willing to pay for advertising because most people watch TV programs live rather than record them.
Surely, what broadcasters are worried about is the whole concept of a TV recording machine that people watch instead of live TV. The fact it skips adverts in the recording is just icing. I think they're mostly worried about losing the eyeballs of the lucrative AB demographic -- high-earning types who only watch a few select TV programs anyway. But don't they think that attacking their own viewers and branding them "thieves" is a bit misguided? How is that going to get people to watch the TV more?
Does my bum look big in this?
Hell, that's cheaper than cable is, I'm all for it! Oh wait, you mean they won't be cutting thier profit margin any? I keep forgetting that they are guaranteed a certian level of profit by law...
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
Like anyone actually buys crap from ads on TV anyways.
A new technology comes along, which allows us users to save time, not having to spend so much time out of our busy day watching commercials, that's just fucking tough for advertisers.
Furthermore, intelligent advertisers have started to insert "ads" into TV shows. For example, All My Children promotes cosmetics company Revlon within the show, by having one of their actresses take a job at Revlon within the show.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
I really want the ability to record programs, and later watch them, and I'd pay a premium for certain PVR features like:
Each of these features is worth money, and if I have to pay a premium to get some or all of these features, I will do so. If the broadcasting networks think that it's worth $250 extra per year to receive their programs without commercials, then why don't they try offering it? Couldn't they offer their content without commercials on a series of premium cable channels? Gosh, no, it turns out that it's not just about skipping commercials -- I think people are more interested in the time-shifting ability than skipping commercials. I certainly am.
While each of these features is promised by one or more companies that claim to manufacture PVRs, I have been unable to see any PVR in use, except for one demo of UltimateTV (which I later learned I cannot use because I apparently can't get a signal at my home).
I've recently been shopping for a PVR and have concluded that none are currently available from companies likely to be in business in 6 months.
I really, really want a Personal Video Recorder, and I'd gladly pay a premium. Indeed, I actually bought an RCA UltimateTV unit and satellite dish, but I can't get a signal and neither DirecTV nor UltimateTV could suggest the name of any installers who would not charge me huge fees just to confirm that I can't get a satellite signal. I sent the system back.
I wanted to try TiVo, which has a "fast-fast-forward" but they signed an exclusive deal with Best Buy, which won't demo the unit (and doesn't have them in stock anyway).
ReplayTV demands a huge premium (charging roughly a $300-$350 premium for its prepaid lifetime subscription for programming -- but the money isn't put in escrow, and I assume that if the company loses or settles the pending lawsuits, it will abandon all customers.)
And that leaves . . . nobody. Oh, yeah, DishTV offers its own PVR, but of course I don't expect to get a DishTV signal if I can't get a DirecTV signal (and I understand the companies are merging).
I really want the ability to record programs, and later watch them, and I'd pay a premium for certain features like dual tuners (so I can record one program while watching another, or record two programs at once), a meaningful "commercial skip," and accurate programming information and proper synchronization so I don't lose the first 2 or last 2 minutes of programs because the system decides that it's 7:59 when Fox thinks it's 8:01.
I'd gladly pay a premium, and $250 per year for the commercial-skip capability would be well worth it.
-- http://www.MarkWelch.com/ Pleasanton California
In other words, if I switch channels just as the hour-long 8pm program on one channel ends, I find that I'm 2 minutes into the second channel's 9pm program. This does not appear to be some kind of isolated situation -- it seems to be happening quite often, certainly I notice it several times per week.
According to my best indicators of the "real" time, most networks seem to run late (e.g. their 9pm programs start at 9:02pm and end at 9:59 or 10:00) but others are "out of sync" by one, two, or occasionally three minutes.
While some might just consider this another example of broadcast-TV incompetence (or perhaps someone can find a way to blame it on cable TV), I wonder if one or more of the networks or local affiliates might be doing this intentionally -- either to gain some kind of perceived competitive edge, or to screw up people who are recording programs using VCRs or PVRs and relying on program start and end times?
Can anyone explain this odd trend? Has anyone else noticed it? Or has it always been happening and I've just been oblivious until recently?
If it matters, I'm in the San Francisco bay area, with AT&T Broadband cable.
-- http://www.MarkWelch.com/ Pleasanton California
"Face it, TV broadcasting is a service."
TV broadcasting is an imposition. They blast my property and my person with their rf without my permission. They should be paying me.
"If you watch TV without watching the ads, you are stealing. I would be more than willing to pay in dollars instead of in boredom."
I watch no TV at all, thereby depriving the broadcasters of exactly what an ad-skipper does. Does that men I "owe" $250/year also?
"So what's wrong with that?"
What's wrong with that is that viewers of broadcast TV have no contract with and no obligation to the broadcasters. They have no more right to complain about ad-skipping than the owner of a billboard does about people who look at only part of the billboard.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
I'd be happy to pay US$250 a year to have all my TV without ads. No product placements either. I've got my credit card handy.
Are you prepared to pay more and more as they move the target? That's what I got cable for. Later it turned into tons of Lifetime and Sports Ilistrated adverts. Now the commercial free stuff is on the premium channels. Notice even now some of them are running adverts? How long will it be before the commercial free stuff is all PPV? Pay per view is not commercial free in a theatre anymore. Advertisers will pay what ever it takes to get their placement where the eyeballs are. Money talks. I have dropped cable entirely about 12 years ago. It got too expensive for the little time I spend on the tube anymore. I get the news on TV, but to get the rest of the story, I go online. I now find the real content online.
In the US, the lack of real content (studios will not release good features due to fear of taping) is what is killing the adoption of HDTV. I don't see any progress in this field until DVD's come out in HDTV format. I don't have to sit and wait 4 minutes at a time waiting for ads to end before I can find more content while online. I can hit the go button and move along to the content.
The truth shall set you free!
I haven't watched Bugs Bunny lately, but I heard that there was humour on several levels, thus entertaining the child [because it's a cartoon] and the adult [because it's witty].
I haven't either, mostly because none of the networks carry it. It's now primium content requiring a subscription (cable/dish/cartoon network) to receive. I haven't seen it on ABC, NBC, CBS on Saturday mornings in years. It seems to have been replaced by infomercials.
The truth shall set you free!
Turn off the TV. Don't record anything. Find other things to do with the time. If you think they're upset about skipping commercials, just wait and see how upset they get when nobody is paying attention.