[mythtv-users] Is skipping ads really a good idea?

William Munson william_munson at bellsouth.net
Mon Jun 18 19:18:04 UTC 2007


Wes Hardaker wrote:
>>>>>> "CB" == Cole Brodine <cbrodine at gmail.com> writes:
>>>>>>             
>
> CB> What I think is the even bigger discussion item: What if this becomes the
> CB> norm, and TV stations lose a lot advertising revenue?  Will cable prices go
> CB> up?  Will the quality of shows decrease? (More reality TV makes me sad)
>
> I think the more likely result will be a mix of decrease quality in
> conjunction with increased product-placement (it's already on a huge
> increase).  Ever see "The Truman Show".  Coming soon to a show near you.
>
> Really there is no way around product placement.  We've been heading
> there for a while.  Fast forward in VCR's was step one.  FF on DVRs was
> step 2.  And auto-commercial skip (which I love) is going to be the
> final nail.  It only leaves 4 solutions:
>
> 1) make skipping commercials illegal and technically
>    challenging/impossible for closed system devices through DRM.
> 2) increase in-show commercials (no OTA and we go to all subscription
>    cable/etc likely through encrypted systems).
> 3) user-pays-all-fees for no commercial channels
> 4) all TV content goes away and we're down to pay-per-use kind of
>    architecture only.
>
> I'm sure that the marketers of the world will try to make commercial
> skipping illegal at some point (we're near the typing point now; as DVR
> use has gone up massively then systems are starting to put restrictive
> code into the systems; tivo starting to cave a while ago).
>
> I think more and more dollars though will be retrieved from in-show
> commercials though.  The interesting thing will be to see how close they
> get to the Truman Show like details where it's obnoxious.
>
>   
You forgot one option. The one my children use now. We stop watching TV 
and actually go out and enjoy life and interacting with people. Until 
then I will make use of what rights I have left to watch what I want and 
not the crud they try to sell me. Case in point, what the heck is the 
Truman show? I have never heard of it and from your description of its 
contents would not watch it anyways.

PS - Are you sure you are not a network lawyer or tv station mole?  
(Joking) ;-)


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