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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.
True, but ESPN wouldn't exist for those that do want it, if it wasn't subsidized by the other networks. The same can be said for a lot of things. Emergency services, Healthcare (Your insurance premiums are not enough to pay your bills with. They have to use the money from their other customers.), Education, Public roads, etc. Sometimes to offer something at all, requires that everyone pitch in even if they don't use it.
Most channels would go bankrupt if they didn't get subsidized by more profitable channels. So doing the a la carte thing is a no-go as you'd wind up with about 10 or so channels and the rest would be in the unemployment line, along with everyone else employed because of them. (Any of those channels with "original" programming.) Some shows would never see the light of day if that happened. (Game of Thrones from HBO.)
You might be fine with that, but there are plenty of people that would not be. Wealth is for the good of society. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean you get to avoid supporting society. It's give and take. You want money from society, society has rules and requirements about that money. Subsidizing is one of them.