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Philips to prevent consumers from skipping commercials?
Why do people love things like TiVO, MythTV, Freevo and the myriad of other PVR suites that are out there? Probably many reasons, but one of the most important and most enjoyable features is the ability to skip over or even prevent recording of commercials. What if that was taken away? It seems some companies want just that. This time around, Philips is pitching an idea for changing the way commercials are encoded and handled on a television that some, including myself, see as more than just intrusive, and rather as downright unethical and wrong.
Philips suggests adding flags to commercial breaks to stop a viewer from changing channels until the adverts are over. The flags could also be recognized by digital video recorders, which would then disable the fast forward control while the ads are playing.
So it's not as bad as having your eyes held open and being forced to watch propaganda, but ultimately, people pay to be able to have the choice to see what they want. Some may argue that you can't skip past the previews and ads at a movie theater, but the numbers show that even movie theaters are becoming more and more unpopular. It gets even better, with the mention of more money being paid to "get back" the ability to skip advertisements. Is this a joke? Sadly, it's not. Hopefully it will be one of those patents that is never used, and an idea that slowly dies and fades into history. What is your opinion? Is this crossing the line? Is this acceptable?
Philips suggests adding flags to commercial breaks to stop a viewer from changing channels until the adverts are over. The flags could also be recognized by digital video recorders, which would then disable the fast forward control while the ads are playing.
So it's not as bad as having your eyes held open and being forced to watch propaganda, but ultimately, people pay to be able to have the choice to see what they want. Some may argue that you can't skip past the previews and ads at a movie theater, but the numbers show that even movie theaters are becoming more and more unpopular. It gets even better, with the mention of more money being paid to "get back" the ability to skip advertisements. Is this a joke? Sadly, it's not. Hopefully it will be one of those patents that is never used, and an idea that slowly dies and fades into history. What is your opinion? Is this crossing the line? Is this acceptable?
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User Comments (7)
Post a comment| DragonMaster on April 19, 2006 6:08 PM | And some people would then hack firmwares to do things backward : Skip the flags but not the rest.
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| crossfire851 on April 19, 2006 6:26 PM | Maybe, if they keep current prices, but offered a low-end version with this "feature" that was 1/4 less then standered priceing.
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| AtomicMatter on April 20, 2006 6:03 AM | I agree with DragonMaster, its not illegal to skip these adverts, but I don't even think I firmware hack is needed. A company who would make a TV/digital recorder which could still skip the adverts would be a popular choice for consumers and would be completly legal.
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| enasni on April 20, 2006 6:28 AM | Creating forceful commercial veiwing technology will affect us all. If we don't have Tivo or any of those devices, just regular t.v., then you are at risk of being forced to watch one channel. If you can't change the channel during commercials then if your channel surfing and hit a network with a current commercial then you have to wait to change the channel.
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| Mictlantecuhtli on April 20, 2006 9:49 AM | It won't prevent turning the TV off, will it?
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| crossfire851 on April 20, 2006 5:15 PM | Originally posted by Mictlantecuhtli: It won't prevent turning the TV off, will it? You can always un-plug it. No power, no go!!!
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| aksd on April 20, 2006 6:09 PM | Originally posted by enasni: Creating forceful commercial veiwing technology will affect us all. If we don't have Tivo or any of those devices, just regular t.v., then you are at risk of being forced to watch one channel. If you can't change the channel during commercials then if your channel surfing and hit a network with a current commercial then you have to wait to change the channel. What will the Cable/Satellite get from forcing you to watch the commercials? It's not like the net where you get X amount every time someone views a page. I don't get it.
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