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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."
We can use blipverts! Just watch out for the exploding diabetics.
Why, ABC, do you want people to stop watching your programs?
NEWSFLASH: If your channel is the only one disabling fast forwarding then people aren't going to bother watching your shit in the first place.
So long as it's just blocking fast-forwarding on ABC shows and not other channels, let me be the first to say that I have absolutely no problem with this.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
When I see an ad even in fast forward that catches my attention I usually rewind and watch it. Maybe I'm just weird, but I dont enjoy watching crap commercials for tampons etc., its not as if I use them! However good beer commericals on the other hand...
More of the same ol' same ol' of screwing the consumer.
-PB_TPU_40 The trick to flying is to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
If I'm watching a TV program on my DVR and I catch up to the live program, and am thus forced to watch the commercials, I get a little annoyed, but I live with it. If I were watching a pre-recorded program on my DVR and I was FORCED to watch the commercials because they decided to disable a primary function of my DVR, I would be pissed off, and feel very hostile toward the network and the advertisers involved.
Sure, an important part of advertising is getting people to hear your message. However, it's also important not to inspire feelings of hatred toward you by trying to force your message down people's throats. If the net result of your invasive advertising is that everyone hates you, how is that a good thing for the advertiser?
Because the only reason to fast forward a DVR is to skip commercials. You really want to watch that 20 minutes of the baseball game that is on before the show you were trying to tape. Or if you rewind to see something at the start of Lost again, you really want to re-watch the 30 minutes of the show you've already seen.
Any DVR manufacturer that goes along with making a DVR less useful than a VCR is going to suffer in a huge way. In 1988 we had a VCR with a 30-second fastforward button.
I'm not even going to get into how making someone watch commercials is wrong.
ABC was only interested in finding a way to receive compensation for un-skipped ads
Whoops, time to change their business model!
Let me introduce myself. I'm an olde farte. I was a teenager back in the 1970's when they were laying the first cable around our neighbourhood. Back then people (the They as in "they say ...") said "nobody will pay for what they already
get for free" and "nobody will pay to see advertising." Well... "they" were wrong as it turns out, people now pay upwards of
50$US for the honour of watching bad programmes and watching Enzyte Bob lose his shorts (tell me those floats in the pool
aren't phallic, go on).
Now it's the content providers who are insisting the viewer (those with satellite and cable) watch the advertisements they are already paying to see.
<Stimpy>Ironic, huh, Ren?</Stimpy>
Time for network execs and particularly the viewers to wake up and smell the coffee.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
they should get TV makers to prevent me from changing the channel when commercials start too.
I'll just stop watching TV... oh wait, I already did.
No commericials, no annoying crap. I get more done, and if there is anything I want to watch, then I download it off of one of the many sources of free video.
Quality and instant (yet horribly scheduled) access is the only thing TV networks have going for them, now.
Yeah, but you have to have a license to even watch tv
I purchase a LOT of dvd movies. these has DRM content such as the fbi warning and sometimes trailers or just film studio propaganda which is non-skippable on my sony dvd player (otherwise very nice)... what's up with that? we have to first buy the content, then HAVE to watch crap like that?
yes I do understand that if I copy this disc I just bought I will get into trouble, yes, I known this since vhs cassettes in my youth thank you very much
that will probably never change, but I think dvd player fabricants should enable skip option on content you paid for...
I can just picture it now. DVR is going to push TV channels to start putting on-screen ads up during the show (sorta like what you see splashed across every single frickin' page on the internet).
Could someone explain to me how a skipped ad, in which the person has absolutely no desire to ever see the ad, buy the product, or otherwise succumb to feminine hygeine products, is any different than walking away during commercials, or can in any way be construed as "lost revenue"?
If a person skips an ad (or, fast forwards it), they very obviously had no desire to ever submit dollars to that product/company, or would do so already without the ad in the first place.
I don't have a TV (on purpose, I find it save tons of time for me,) but my parents do, so whenever I go there I end up watching something on TV at least for a little while and I never watch commercials. How are these ABC executives going to prevent me from switching to another channel while the commercials are on? What about my ability to (gasp) turn the TV off or even (double gasp) go away from the box when the commercial is on?
I trully believe that it is enough that my parents already pay for the dish service (ExpressVu in Canada,) and I trully don't care about the networks' desire to make money on commercials.
---
(going on a tangent here)
By the way, I really reduced the number of visits to the local movie theaters, I went to watch the Superman though and it was terrible experience: it was a 10pm show and people brought their 2-3 year old kids, a family right behind us had 4 of these things at the same time and it was impossible to get the parents to shut the little pricks up. And one of the parents at the end of the movie started yelling at me: you can't treat kids that way, what do you have against kids (the guy was from India I think, but it should be irrelevant in principle,) I told him he should have kept the brats at home and not bring them to the 10pm show that ended at 1am. He wouldn't stop yelling, so I asked him if he wants to take it outside, he didn't, oh well. And by the way, the movie was supposed to start at 10pm, but it only started at 10:20, and they went through all the garbage commercials and all the little good drones/zombies were watching those commercials as if their lives depended on them and I was studying the drones, they were almost drooling with those gigantic backets of pop-corn.
I know why I don't go to the movies: little kids, big up kids, popcorn, noise, (oh yeah, one of those parents behind us left his cell on and was yapping on it for sometime during the movie,) commercials for anything, not just movies, then 20 minutes of movie commercials.
---
Fuck the movie theaters. And fuck the ABC network producers, we already pay to watch their garbage and they just have to stick it to us with all these commercials AND now they want to prevent us from skipping the commercials.
Man I am glad I don't have a TV at home.
You can't handle the truth.
Maybe it's ABC, maybe it's advertisers, or maybe it's Nielson, but these guys all need to understand that the whole point of advertisements is to convert customers to their product.
I'm not going to be converted to some life insurance, or a box of cookies, so why am I watching ads for those things? Rather, why are these people throwing money away on me if it's not going to turn into a conversion for them?
I skip any commercial I'm not interested in, and that's an awful lot of them. If I woke up one day and my fast-forward button no longer skipped commercials, it wouldn't equal a new conversion for these guys. So they'd still be out the money for the commercial, and on top of that, the money they gave to the lobbyist to disable my fast-forward button.
This is like saying spam-blockers are hurting the business of Viagra and timeshares. The people using blocking and deleting spam aren't going to buy viagra if just those spam-blockers were somehow less effective, and what's next, stopping the delete button from functioning when it's an advertisement?
Does ABC really think that if only they could get us to watch more SPAM, they'd somehow make more money?
Because it's far cheaper to hire incompetent Executives to demand stupid things from another industry and whine about it because nobody agrees with them.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
...cars that are pissing me off on the highway.
...cell phones of people in the grocery store with those stupid BlueTooth headsets.
...push-to-talk on cell phones.
...Blackberries.
Is there any reason why ABC should be allowed to disable someone else's equipment that they don't like, and that I should not be allowed?
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
With CableCARD 2.0, the tech would be there to make this possible. They could even prevent programs from being DVR'd in the first place.
Watch out, you'll be modded down by a horde of TiVo apologists who still don't get that they have already sold TiVo owners down the river several times (remember the 30-second skip?) and won't hesitate to again.
No I don't, actually. I've had a TiVo since their first models came out and I don't recall any of them having a 30-second skip.
More on your topic: I'm on a fence with my TiVo. I'm worried about the whole DRM thing. It hasn't affected me yet, but the instant it does, TiVO will lose a household with three TiVOs in it immediately.
Studies show that the net is displacing television as an entertainment option, especially among coveted younger viewers. I love the kind of thinking that responds to this threat by trying to make sure that television remains as unlike (and separate from) the net as possible.
I barely watch TV anymore, and commercials are one big reason why. I'm so used to being able to choose exactly what I see and hear that I find the idea of passively accepting ads unacceptable; the annoyance level spoils shows for me. Note that I *am* willing to pay for programming; I'd just rather do it directly, through subscription fees, than have content force-fed to me on the remote chance it might make me buy something.
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.
/flame ON. (and sorry for the meta discussion)
:-)
What would it take to MOTIVATE you not to use the word "incentivise" ever again? Do you think that using (not utilizing!) large words makes you sound more intelligent?
It makes you sound like a blathering idiot who doesn't know the language.
Ok -- there -- I feel better now. My co-workers thank you for diverting my flames from them for the rest of the day.
P.S. I'm waiting for someone to post that incentivise is a perfectly cromulent word.
Ian Ameline
I would say I see more commercials while fast forwarding with Tivo than live tv. If I am fast forwarding, I am staring at the tv, noting every commercial, to see when I can hit play. We often stop to watch funny or interesting commercials (like Apple's new ones). If I'm watching Live TV, I often get up for commercials knowing that I have 3-4 minutes (what happened to 2 minutes of commercials) until I need to come back.
And what's with commercials being twice as loud as the show you're watching!
-Ben
-=Down Syndrome in Maine
You know what's sad? That even though the Technocracy is a fictional element of an awesome RPG, it's becoming more and more real every day.
Next thing you know, I'll start incurring Paradox when mundanes see me slinging fireballs around.
"You will pay for your lack of vision..." - Emperor Palpatine to Ray Charles
From the article, an opinion by the ABC tool Shaw:
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong wrong! Mr. Shaw! What a tool you've turned out to be. People are not grateful for the timeshifting of their shows... they're grateful for being in control of their watching preferences. Some will watch commercials and will do so whether or not they can skip the ads. Others don't ever watch ads, don't ever want to, but happen to inadvertantly bump into ads every once in a while -- that's the best you're going to get with them.
You want to piss off the customers? Disable the fast forward during commercials... Plain and simple... there will be a backlash.
Let's assume:
You are watching 1 hour of Television a day.
Ads on US television, 3 minutes every 10 minutes - rough estimate.
1 x 6 x 3 x 365 = 6570 minutes per annum = 109 hours per annum.
What's your time worth $10/hour (conservative figure)?
So that's $1090 p.a. for pretty crappy programming vs £150 p.a for what is without a doubt the best television in the world.
You've been had, mate!
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
Traditionally it's not "adapt or die" in commercial culture. It's something more along the lines of Sue, Threaten, Lobby, Buyout, and failing that Adapt, or Die.
Whenever commercials come on TV, I SWITCH TO ANOTHER CHANNEL without commercials.
I bet next they'll try to disable the chan up/down buttons, the mute button, and the power button during commercials. Then they'll try to mandate all chairs have restraints that are activated right before commercials come on. Ooh, and little things to hold open your eyelids and ears...
However good beer commericals on the other hand...
**scribes your post into large book**
The networks should be the last people with any input into the technology that will define the future of the TV industry. All the decent television is elsewhere
You see, ABC, CBS and NBC are the suvivours of the age of Radio and early Television networks. They were the Passive Pay-to-view means of televised entertainment in the USA. Now they are old and out of touch, their programmes are rubbish, their news is rubbish, but they are still huge and powerful, probably because they are merged or bought out by other companies which made their profits doing something other than grasping straws in a dwindling market to feed a one trick pony (nice combination of cliche's, eh?)
They demand special treatment. In light of dozens of competing channels which now produce excellent and diverse entertainment, they need this old business model to succeed. Otherwise, heavens(!), they'd have to role up their sleeves and get down to the business of creating content worth paying for.
Can't have that, can we? So corporate welfare, let's demand special treatment from hardware vendors, cable/satellite distributors and special laws which protect our vested interests from big government.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
When there were 8 commercials per hour, it was not be worth people's time to skip the ads.
With 22 commercials per hour, it is not worth the time to watch the show live.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Not surprising. The television networks clearly don't know a damn thing.
*) they put their best shows up against the other network's best shows. Sun Tzu said to attack where your enemy is weak. Therefore, when otherwise perfectly fine shows are put up against a category blockbuster, such as Friends, or Seinfeld, they are killed quickly. Altering the schedule to put good shows up against the competition's bad shows would increase the number of viewers for that show.
*) Sun Tzu also said that the place of battle must not be known to the enemy. I think that Thursday night at 8:00 PM is a known place of battle. If the networks were smart, they would have surprised their enemies and aired a good show on Tuesday night.
If Machiavelli is your cup of tea, multiple violations can be seen there as well, such as a failure to heed Chapter XIX: "That One Should Avoid Being Despised And Hated".
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
OK, so now instead of fast forwarding through commercials on my DVR, I just go back to flipping to another channel while commercials are on! Brilliant ABC!
how a DVR Fast Forwarding through a commercial is any different then a VCR that taped a show doing the same exact thing for the past how many years? yeah that's what i thought.
Advertisers are relying on a couple of things in their current business model: that inertia will keep a significant percentage of the viewership on that couch, passively sucking up the message, during the ads, and that ads are allowing them to influence the purchasing habits of a significant number of viewers even despite their better judgement. The quite obvious tactics of manipulation in advertisements work. Stoned dude sits on the couch and while he could just get up and walk away, or mute it and page through a magazine, the activity barrier is higher than just clicking through on FF, and so he sits there, and that taco ad works on him. I'm hungry, I want a taco. The whole point of advertising is influencing the decision of the viewer: making them buy something they didn't think they wanted (and probably don't need and will get nothing from). Does it work? Look at the stupid cars people drive, the rancid garbage they eat, the price they pay for bubbly sugar water.
Advertisers are concerned about DVR fast forwarding diminishing the reach of their advertising and they are right to, it is diminishing the reach of their advertising. Advertisers pay networks for that reach so networks are justifiably concerned about the rise of DVRs impacting their revenue. ABC's arguments that people don't have the right and (most amusingly) don't really want to FF through ads are idiotic, but the counter-argument that ad-skipping is not going to mess with the business model of sponsored television doesn't hold water either.
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
They're making sure that when you do want that chocolate bar or cup of coffee, it's the one advertised that you'll recognise in the store. Then you buy the advertised one because it's already familiar to you, you already know about it. It becomes the safe option, the others are unknown and therefore risky.
Deleted
This is why I only watch movies at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas here in Austin. No children except at special showings (for Superman, no children under 6 and then only with parent). Even then, if they are noisy they will get thrown out. Also, no commercials and special movie-themed pre-show entertainment. (Unless you consider previews commercials, or 60's-era Car commercials before the movie Cars to be annoying commercials rather than fun pre-show entertainment... which I don't).
Also, they have good beer. Hooray, beer!
Seriously, if you like movies, the Alamo is a good reason to move to Austin. Or, at least, to visit.
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
The thirty second skip exists. It just requires you to enter a button combo to unlock it. Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select (I think). Then the button that usually skips you 1/4 through the show will instead skip you forward 30 seconds. (Unless you are fast-forwarding in which case it will act normally).
If this signature is witty enough, maybe somebody will like me.
Over 60% of kids surveyed recently noted that computers were indispensible in their life and used them accordingly. (UK story on Drudgereport.com yesterday noted this)
TV's were rated indispensible by something around 40% and dropping.
Networks are BEHIND THE CURVE, & still trying to save the sales of buggy whips.
Time for a mass cleanout of Network Execs, to be replaced by people who have grown up with computers, as the new era is already here.
During the 1970's it was a common fact that you would no longer have commercials if you switched to cable. The commercials in there were only for antenna users and they promised to cut them out as soon as the networks made oontent just for the cable.
Then they decided to get even more money by charging us and getting money from advertisers. Then they decided to get even more money by putting more commercials. Then they decided they could get even more money by raising rates and tying users with tiers with crap they dont need. Now they want even more money by skipping commercials ff options. Where does it end? People are paying $100 a month because there is a show they like on HBO on only that tier offers it and for every 30 minute show there are over 15 minutes of commercials.
Is this what this crap buys?
No wonder I refuse to watch any tv. There are some shows I like such as Boston Legal and the West wing but I refuse to just sit there and stare at a tube?? Especially if half the content is now crap.
Back in the 60's you had only 1 or 2 30 second commercials and you could live with antenna.
http://saveie6.com/
From the Sony Bravia EULA in the not-too-distant future... By turning on this television, you hereby agree that television shows ("CONTENT") are paid for by advertising and that avoiding advertising is morally wrong. Fast forwarding, skipping of commercials using technology (PVRs, Tape Recording Devices, Time Machines) is prohibited. Talking to your loved ones during commericials is illegal. Going to the washroom during a commercial is stealing. You hereby agree not avert your eyes or plug your ears during commercial breaks. Deaf and/or dumb people found to be in proximity of this television set while it is turned on will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Then last == never. Because it's never had ads. Ever. That's the whole point of the license: it makes the Beeb independent of commercial interests. At least in theory. From my experience that independence has had the interesting side-effect of pretty much forcing commerical TV in Britain also to act fairly independently of the people that advertise on their channels.
...and like Br'er Rabbit, we'll get away from them.
They could be shooting themselves in the foot with this one because it so clearly subtracts a capability that everybody has had for nearly 25 years with VCRs. I imagine even FCC commissioners and congressmen fast-forward now and then.
And if they succeed? TV becomes less watchable and just buying the show, more desireable. More and more people will give up on anything not enhanced by it's "live" nature (sports, Idol, etc) and just get the download (legal or not) or of course buy or rent the series on DVD a year later.
Which means the production company still has a business model, but the TV network, not.
"It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper."
- Rod Serling
Without the 'fast-forward' function, why even own a commercial DVR?
Wouldn't people just switch to DVD recorders or a media center capable system, whether it's Linux or Windows or even custom made?
Removing features from an established product like DVRs would only infuriate not only your veiwers but the owners of the products who bought them for the very features you intend to disable. Millions of DVR owners would just stop watching ABC, and download the commercial free versions of their favorite shows online - bypassing any revenue you would intend to make over this change.
I believe I'll go sell all my Disney/ABC stock now, I want no part in such idiocy nor the loss in profits if it actually happens. If I were a financial adviser, I'd advise others to do the same.
Should this ever happen, I will be cancelling my DVR and cable, and not watch any more TV.
;-)
I can't tolerate live TV as it is, and I have occasionally rewound an ad which looked funny which I had skipped. (Like those great VW ads about unpimpin' your ride
I won't watch yout (*&#^ Kotex, McDonald's, or Huggies commercials because I can guarantee I will ever be a consumer. Your ad contract with ABC does not extend to me.
I wish advertisers would outgrow this belief that I am somehow morally/legally bound to watch the stuff I don't want to see that they paid someone else for. Pay me a few hundred extra/month, and I'll personally watch all of the ads during all of the TV I watch. Otherwise, go away!!
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
http://bigmarv.net/how/tivo30secondskip.html
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
I'm waiting for someone to post that incentivise is a perfectly cromulent word.
:-)
Incentivise is a perfectly cromulent word. Personally I find that utilizing large words embiggens us all.
Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
ABC has filed a lawsuit against the "Channel Up" and "Channel Down" button.
I think i'll read a book.
Gads, this is already getting stupid and they want to pile on more crap?
As if having ads every 5 min now (usually for their shows) and running a little ad in the corner for their next show and a logo that seems stuck to my screen just isn't enough....
I used to get DVDs instead but even those are getting too annoying to bother with. I mostly buy/rent older stuff, much less annoying crap on em. People pay big for convenience, why keep making your stuff less so ?!?
I made an interesting discovery when i was home during the day last week. Perry Mason must have a 100-year distribution agreement for no cuts...the commercials weren't even enough to go pee. I swear there were like 4 60-90 sec breaks the whole hour.
There's no way anyone will be able to effectively stop consumers from fast forwarding through commercials. I believe eventually this will bring about a massive change in how commercials are displayed on television. We'll probably end up with 1/4 of the screen constantly displaying an ad. Or perhaps a picture in picture that displays a commercial. Or maybe just a quick five second transparent "pop-up" that displays an ad. Or Madison Ave will go even further and just embed ads right into the show itself. Billboards and constant product placement in each show? Characters pausing every 10 minutes to remind us to "Ride the Walrus"? Plenty of movies already feature this kind of product placement, so why not television shows.
Oh please do this! I hope all channels do this!
There would have to be some signal that "commercial starts here" and "commercial ends here," otherwise how would the DVR know when to disable fast forward? The OSS DVRs, such as MythTV, could key in on the signal and outright block the commercials entirely. Wow... sign me up!
Just slow the commercials way down so they play at normal speed during FFWD!@
I was thinking about this too, and what would (seem to) work for me, a la carte programming.
Wasn't congress trying to force this issue with the major cable and satellite providers? If I could choose to have only certain channels (each seperately priced) then I think I could personally cut down on my cable bill significantly. History Channel, National Geographic Channel, and Cartoon Network - I would gladly pay for these seperately so I didn't have to subsidize crap channels like Soap and E!.
On a program called "The Soup" on "E!", during a commercial break they insert a ten-second snippet of the show between the commercials. Until I got wise to this trick, I would stop fast-forwarding to catch it (usually just a quick throwaway gag), after which the commercials would continue. I thought this was a pretty clever way to catch us fast-forward junkies, but I don't really fall for it any more.
...ABC makes a show worthy of my Tivo's drive space, I'll worry.
How you see the world is how the world sees you.
Product placement within shows is the only way that advertisers will be guaranteed viewers will see it. I hate product placement, but I guess someone has to fund my favorite shows. With modern computer editing techniques, they could in fact replace the in-show ads to keep up with changes in advertisers and localization.
Reminds me of the TV show "Max Headroom", where it was a crime to turn off a television, and everything in society was based upon TV and Ratings...
Well, I will fly against the grain, and I'll say that at least ABC is somewhat consistant. So far they are the only network that allows you to watch their shows for free on the 'net. All you need to do is watch the ads that are interspersed in the content. You can skip segments of the show, but you have to watch the commercial directly preceding the segment you do want to watch. It works very well - I watched the whole Commander In Chief without any problems (except that the show isn't very good).
(Or I should rather say, they allowed you to watch - appears the site is down till fall)
I understand that networks make their money from advertising. And I channel surf with the best of them, so their advertising does not reach me for the most part. But if there was a way to design DVRs the way they designed their show streaming, that would be OK with me, and their advertisers would actually get more exposure than they do now.
And in case anybody wonders, I do use a DVR right now, and I do skip all the commercials, and I'm loving it. But I'm also realistic in realizing that if everybody did this, we'd end up with product placements that are even more annoying than they are today, making the quality of the programs much worse.
m
Some of the DVDs we got for the kids are so bad I ripped them, eliminated the cruft, then burned a DVD that actually starts playing the movie when inserted into the player. The kids are happier, I'm happier, and the original is safe in the cabinet.
That's right. Thanks to DRM and the DMCA, I can't skip/FF all the junk on the original, but I can easily make a full quality copy without the restrictions.
At least with VHS tapes I could use a marker to write the time point where the movie started on the tape. Then I could FF there before hitting play. I thought technology would save me from that tedium.
When I get sick of comercial television or just want to watch something with actual merit I switch over to WPT (Wisconsin Public Television, Wisconsin's PBS station) or to TPT (Twin Cities Public Television, in MN). They have short little recognitions for sponsors/donors but thats it. The pledge drives can be a little annoying but on the other hand if its for a show you like you get a good 6 hours worth of episodes to watch. And yes I do donate to WPT and to WPR (Wisconsin Public Radio), I'd rather pay for high quality shows then have to sit through commercial breaks that seem to be lasting longer and longer.
/. ;D )
Just my two cents,
(I would expect lots of geek and nerd comments but I am posting to
~Petaris "The world is open. Are you?"
Never completely happen. The only fix is the following. An a la carte pay TV via Internet or Satelite. (can't use Cable because they have to much of their own content and will always try to force garbage TV they created on you) The problem today isn't commercials, it's the fact that TV sucks. If a channel was great people would pay for it without the need to be inundated with commercials. It's the reason I know so many people who pay for NFL Sunday Ticket. I hate garbage shows as much as I hate garbage commericals. I watch pretty much only four families of stations. History Channel(s), Science Channel, National Geographic, and the ESPN Channel(s). Any other stations my viewing habits are spotty at best. I used to watch the Discovery Channel, but it's filled with a ton of garbage now too. (those biker shows were cool the first 10,000 times...)
Well perhaps you missed:
Shameless
Black Books
Ideal
Dr Who
BBC documentaries (some of the best in the world: Private life of plants, string theory, etc)
Battlestar Galactica
IT Crowd
The office (UK)
Ali G
Alan Partridge
That show about the priest who lives on the island that i forget the name of...
And im sure ive forgotten a few. Even their shitty sitcoms (read little britian) are way funnier than the popular ones in the us (eg friends).
The only worthwhile american tv is from HBO and PBS. Unless you like watching 'CSI: please kill us now' editions interspursed with reality tv and dating shows.
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
Let's disable the mute, volume, channel, and power buttons while the commercials are running too!
Here is a simple solution if ABC gets there way (other than not watching ABC). For every commercial you are forced to watch because your fast forward button is now disabled, send a letter (not email) to the company with something like the following:
Dear sirs,
I was forced to watch your commercial on my dvr last night because ABC has taken it upon themselves to somehow deactivate the fast forward button function. They state they do so to benefit their advertisors. Why your company and ABC believes it has the right to break a piece of equipment that I worked very hard to save for and to purchase, I do not understand. However, since that is your position and my dvr is no longer functioning correctly, I am no longer going to purchase the products you manufacture. Not only that, I am telling my friends and family to boycott your products as well.
Sincerely,
Then follow through on it. Most likely, you will get a letter back saying it is not their policy to do this, but ABC and that they have no control over it. However, companies take serious the threats of boycotts, particularly when they are on grounds such as these. If they have enough complaints, they'll pressure ABC to quit or they will pull their advertising. Either way, in the end, ABC will have to change the practice.
How about the KFC superbowl comercial??? Nobody has mentioned that yet! KFC ran a special comercial during the superbowl where ONLY if you had the ability to go frame by frame you could find the secret password to get a free Chicken Snacker from KFC! If ABC wanted to cash in on comercails and DVR's just use "special" tactics! I claimed my free snacker!
I don't see now ABC can disable MythTV on my Linux hardware. Sure you can make me go throw the inefficient analog data stream, but you can't disable it.
this is just another reason why programming will continue to get pirated to the 'Net via BitTorrent (or insert newfangled filesharing technology here).
Ok, hold on a second here. Let's be accurate about something. Anything, and I mean ANYTHING that is shown over the ABC airwaves that is recorded and shared via the internet IS NOT piracy. Over the air television, HD or analog, is free for the taking.
"...the shortest distance between two points may be straight line, but it is by no means the most interesting."
You do realise that Stargate SG-1 was a Showtime original series... before it was a SciFi original series...
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In Soviet Russia, commercials fast forward YOU!
By ripping that original and making a new copy of it without the restrictions, you have bypassed the copy protection and therefore broken the DMCA, a federal law. I obviously don't think doing that is wrong; I'm just pointing out that it is against the law. I'm just bringing up that both of the actions you described are technically illegal.
We may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode. -Capt. Mal Reynolds
With MythTV, I am able to skip or trim out all commercials regardless of what ABC and the MSOs do.
In a similar way, I strip out most/all of the online ads via Firefox and AdBlock.
My time is valuable and these tools allow me to view what I want to see without distraction and delay.
Let's be accurate about something.
Yes, that would be a nice idea, wouldn't it?
Anything, and I mean ANYTHING that is shown over the ABC airwaves that is recorded and shared via the internet IS NOT piracy. Over the air television, HD or analog, is free for the taking.
Bullshit. Sorry, but that is complete and utter bullshit. "Let's be accurate about something." Just because something is shown over the airwaves does not mean it's free for the taking.
Unlike you, I will back up my claims with evidence.
It is not "free for the taking" in the USA. See this statement from the US Copyright Office website, which says "anybody who wishes to retransmit copyrighted broadcast programming--whether over the Internet or by more established means of transmission such as cable or satellite--may do so only by obtaining the consent of the copyright owners."
It is not "free for the taking" in Britain, either. See the official guide to UK copyrights.
I don't know about other countries, but I suspect you're based in the USA, in which case you are simply wrong.