Broadcasters Put New Ad-Skipping Restrictions On YouTube TV (dslreports.com)

YouTube launched its new "YouTube TV" service last week for select markets. One of the biggest features for the service is its DVR functionality, which would in theory allow users to record shows and fast forward through all the commercials. Unfortunately, that is not the case, notes the Wall Street Journal. Karl Bode writes via DSLReports: If a show is available on-demand, viewers won't be able to skip ads, even if they recorded the episode on DVR. Google has confirmed with the Journal that the restriction is courtesy of the licensing agreements the broadcast industry forced Google to adhere to in order to offer the service. As a result, if YouTube TV has the on-demand version of a specific program you may be interested in, then the service won't let viewers watch a recorded version that allows for ad-skipping. Instead, viewers are forced to watch the on-demand episode and all of the ads, even if consumers thought they saved the show on their DVR for ad-skippable viewing.

Comments

Not Quite Right

[CrankyFool]

Let's be clear here: Broadcasters didn't do this, YouTube (AKA Alphabet) did this. Broadcasters asked for this -- maybe even demanded this, or traded this for lower costs -- and YouTube decided that having their content, plus ads, was more important than sticking to their guns and offering their customers (the people who actually pay money for the service) an ads-free experience.

Re:Not Quite Right

[rtb61]

So let me get this straight, some the fuck how, advertisers think people will buy their products when they force them sit through those busker screams. Oh yes I will buy your product after you force me, actively force me to watch you shit, now honestly is that true, talk about self delusion.

I don't know about other people but piss me off with a commercial and I likely will not only not buy your product but not buy if for a long time.

You might as well think it is worthwhile to punch people in the face because it really attracts their attention, so punch them in the face, scream about your products and then reinforce the message by kicking them in the genitals, oh yeah, they will remember your product but will they buy it? In a choice between watching content and watching some shit advert, I simply switch to alternate content, done and finished. So much choice, so little time, so meh. Google and Alphabet as run by the big shit are just full of it (total control, total power insanity). Never forget those fuckers were dicking around with search globally to secretly try to distort democracy and lets not be fooled, doing that globally as well.

Re:Not Quite Right

[houghi]

So let me get this straight, some the fuck how, advertisers think people will buy their products when they force them sit through those busker screams.

Not only do they think that. They know it works. Sure, you won't and I won't, but then the chance of us buying anything from them compared to the people would would not before and will now is highly in favor of ads.

I used to work for a marketing company. Marketing people are not interested in who will not buy their product. They are interested who will buy their product. And if the profit is higher than the cost of the ads, it is good.

Say they have 1% of the people are a customer. They advertise aggressively to everybody. They will lose 50% of their customer base. They gain 1% of the others. That means they are now around 1.5% An increase of 0.5% of their customer base. That means the ads where successful.

Other way to look at it: if it wasn't successful, they would not do it.

They do not care about you not buying the product. They do not care about 99% of the people not buying the product. You are not their target audience. And if that means you are not watching tv, cable, movies or do not read newspapers or whatever, they are ok with that.

You are unimportant to them. Don't forget that. You are not a customer and you never will be, so why would they care?

And this is why...

[mellon]

..broadcast TV is dying.

Status Quo

[Aaron B Lingwood]

Here comes the new media...

...just like the old media.

I Don't Understand...

[Anonymous Coward]

I am willing to pay money to watch TV without ads...or if I don't want to pay I am willing to watch TV for free with ads. I will not pay money for TV and watch ads...

Re:I Don't Understand...

[rudy_wayne]

I am willing to pay money to watch TV without ads....

You're already paying for television and yet you have a metric shit ton of commercials forced on you. Until people start cancelling their television en masse, nothing will change.

Commercial Parasitoidism

[Anonymous Coward]

Commercials killed TV, advertisers need a new host to survive, now infecting YouTube. Look up the definition of parasitoid.

You try to force me to watch something and BYE!

[markdavis]

>"If a show is available on-demand, viewers won't be able to skip ads, even if they recorded the episode on DVR."

And this is why streaming usually fails, because it puts the user out of control. It doesn't matter the who or why- broadcasters, content providers, streaming service, if they are going to FORCE the customer to view ANYTHING- be it ads, previews, trailers, "infomercials", public service announcements, then we have moved backwards. Streaming gives them that power, and it is often irresistible- something they don't have over DVR's.

Technology has released me from being forced to watch commercials for 20 years and I am not about to start now (VCR then TiVo then added Netflix streaming). I am amazed that people will PAY for services that force them to watch what they don't want. Even if the content is "free", there is a large segment of the market who is like me, and if that contains forced anything, we reject it.

Forced ads are a dinosaur that needs to become and stay extinct.