Disney Says, You WILL Watch the Ads
smooth wombat writes "ABC and ESPN, both owned by Disney, have struck a deal with cable operator Cox Communications to offer hit shows and football games on demand, but with the condition that Cox disable the fast-forward feature that allows viewers to skip ads. This is the first agreement of its kind. It only applies to Cox's video-on-demand service and will not affect viewers using DVRs to fast-forward through ads. The companies will also test technology that will place ads in shows based on ZIP Codes and geographic area, and 'freshen' the ads with new ones every few days."
I just won't be signing up for this idiotic service. As the other poster said, MythTV for me.
One of the things that I really like about the on-demand stuff I get from brighthouse is that there are no commercials at all - other than sometimes before the program begins. Like Anime on demand will often have a short commercial, then the show with no commercials. It's nice too when my kids want to watch Avatar or something because they get to see the whole episode but takes less time.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Every rewind backwards by 10 minutes so you could compare what you just watched with what happened earlier? If they disable fast-forward, you'll have to watch those 10 minutes over again.
I wonder if it will be possible to reinstate the fast-forward button by running the on-demand movie through a DVR.
TV, like magazines, newspapers, and radio are financed through ads and sponsors. While I realize that it is convenient and preferable to not have to watch all those damned "Mr. Clean, Mr. Clean, do dah dah do dah dah" ads, sometimes back to back, in between sections of your favourite show, that is what finances your show.
Besides, I have a feeling that with the popularity of DVD sets being what it is, cable TV will likely start to dwindle and the box sets will be released at the beginning of each season. This way people can choose what shows they absolutely want to watch with no commercials, and which ones aren't really that important.
Kinda free-market at work there.
Then again, I haven't watched TV in several years so I don't know, maybe I missed something vital here...
VOD is just a rehash of shows are already on the channels anyway. Just DVR the show that's on VOD and skip the ads.
My comments here are my own; I do not speak for my employer.
They have 2 types of customer, one of them being their advertisers. They are in the business of selling their other customers to these customers.
Perhaps the future is this: as consumers all gain the ability to circumvent ads and the value of advertising on cable declines, that the charges for cable service increase by at least double, since cable providers wouldn't be able to get any money from advertisers. (Ideally, this would be accompanied by a decrease in the cost of other goods, but I suspect that advertisers would simply keep the same marketing budgets and look elsewhere.)
One wonder what things like ratings would mean in a truly post-advertising world. Why spend millions more on a show just because it gets better ratings, if ad revenues don't exist? Would all cable become like the Discovery channel? Or will pay-per-view become universal?
I said "so to not be a pirate I have to use Windows?" His answer: "Yep, If you use free software you must be pirating something."
However, there would be no Battletar Galactica or The Office or 300 without paying. And in the case of The Office, the program is ad supported. There is a causal relationship between creative works - real or intellectaul - and most of the times that relationship is financial.
Here's a thought - Dickenson's poems might not have exited had a publisher not been able to profit by publishing/printing them. This was before the internet.
As a cheap shot, I'll assume you dont have one because if you did she'd be bitching about it. Trust me, MythTV has an almost subzero WAF...
It's through the roof in my house. The wife gets all of her British shows off of UKNova, podcasts, etc etc etc and they download right to the shared directory. Boom.
She just bought a used XBox to use as a frontend in the bedroom.
So given how solid MythTV is and has been for some time now, your argument is both wrong and sadly out of date.