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ABC Wants DVR Fast Forwarding Disabled
Anonymous CE Worker writes "The television network ABC is looking to develop technology that would disable the fast-forward button on DVRs, and allow commercials to run as intended on their channel." From the article: "Some research executives — even at networks with sales departments that acted differently — had argued before the upfront that ads viewed in fast-forward mode generated value for advertisers, since consumers were at least partly exposed to their messages. But Shaw said ABC was only interested in finding a way to receive compensation for un-skipped ads."
No, why don't they keep their goddamn hands off my personal record-playback device. Period. This practice of fast-forwarding through commercials during playback of recorded television broadcasts has been around since the VCR was commercialized. You could then program your VCR to record things when you were away shortly there after. We're talking the late-1970s when it started to hit middle-class homes in the United States. The networks were pissed about it then, and they're pissed about it now. Only difference is, we have a very corporation-friendly administration AND Congress right now in Washington. They might actually succeed in removing the fast-forward button from every video recording and playback device known to man. How ridiculous would that be?