Comments on: The End of Commercial Skipping Nears?

By: William Hughes

William Hughes — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:23:03 +0000

I have not watched broadcast OR Cable TV since December of 2006. The quality of the Shows continue to head south, with more and more Decent Shows taken off the air and replaced with shoddy “Reality” News or Game Shows. At the same time the number of Commercials rammed down our throats has increased to the point of being unbearable. What is most disturbing is the cntent of these Commercials. Many Companies think the best way to intice me to partake of their products is to present themselves in an obnoxious or even offending manner. Some Ads (Especially those for certain Medical products) approach being PORNOGRAPHIC in nature, and are often aired at times WHEN CHILDREN ARE WATCHING! (They even have the nerve to advertise things like Sex Pills and “Bodily Function” Ads during Children’s Programs themselves! Complaining to the Networks, the Programmers or the Companies is an act of Futility. You are told by the Networks and the Programmers that they have no control over what the Advertisers show on their Programs. The Companies that put out these ads will argue about “Constitutional Rights”. I finally decided enough is enough. Since the Networks make their money selling commercials they obviously do not need my subscription money, so I put it to better use. Since January of 2007 I have ammassed over 7,000 hours of TV Programs on DVD. I no longer have to spend an evening in front of my TV with one finger on my remotes “Mute” Button, ready to blot out an offending ad. I do not seeing TV Programming improving anytime soon. Fortunately there’s a HUGE supply of Decent Shows already made, and we’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s available on DVD!

By: Big John

Big John — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:15:18 +0000

I was just watching Stargate: Atlantis and I noticed several placements – Dell, NEC, etc.

I’m ok with that.

I’m not ok with service providers shutting things off on a broadcaster’s whim. I find it interesting that consumer groups rarely ever pursue legislation to force companies to do things. I also speak of this Andrew Cuomo garbage about Usenet – signing a pledge to ban alt.* groups and if you don’t (Comcast?) then he’ll pursue legal action against you.

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:16:14 +0000

I actually don’t like watching shows on DVD. The unskippable FBI warning is more annoying than skipping commercials with my Tivo remote. Plus, once you factor in putting the dvd, spinning and loading times, main menu intro, and intro credits, the tivo has you beat.

Unless you’ve got one of those pioneer tivo units that let’s you start watching the dvd right at the start of content, instead of at the fbi warning.

By: Ivan

Ivan — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:51:53 +0000

I second Richard’s opinion.

I don’t mind having to watch commercials but only if I’m not paying for a feed (like Hulu.com or a network streaming site). But for a paid cable/satellite content, I don’t want to see ads and I time-shift as much content as possible.

Even if you watch a couple hours a day, you’d spend 30+ minutes staring at ads. This seems like a great waste of time especially for people who work long hours and don’t have much spare time.

As far as sports games go — you can watch a football game in under an hour if you watch just the plays and some interesting moments here and there. For the OTHER football (soccer) it also works out well — I watched most unimportant Euro 2008 matches at FFW (first speed). It sped up the game 3x and, for soccer, worked out perfectly.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:39:43 +0000

I pay Cablevision, my cable provider, for the content. The commercials come along but I have every right not to watch them and fast forward. Cablevision is whole whether or not I am forced to play the commercials. I am satisfied with this arrangement. BTW, I do not watch OTA-type content (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC…) I watch cable-only channels.

I do not care if the content producers are unhappy about this. They are paid by Cablevision, so the advertising is extra income to the big content companies. The majority of content is reruns/repeats, and just so lousy these days. If we could send the big content producers into bankruptcy the world would be a better place.

By: RandomRage

RandomRage — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:44:20 +0000

I’m with Dave…I don’t think consumers will ever give ground on this. Think of the recent uproar when Windows Media Center DVRs accidentally wouldn’t let people record certian NBC programs. Now think about how small a percentage of the market that WMC DVRs actually have. I remember a few years ago when TiVo accidentally flagged episodes of the Simpsons — people freaked out and TiVo relented. People aren’t going to relinquish control of content easily.

By: Brent

Brent — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:37:43 +0000

While I enjoy DVDs for television series to an extent, I think there will always be a desire and demand for the channel surfers and those people will watch the commercials.

I for one only watch commercials during live sporting events or when at someone elses home. My HTPC gives me that freedom and includes commercial detection so I just hit the “skip” button and it goes to the end of the commercial just like that. That really cuts down on the CTFFT that Tivo Steve talks about

By: Mari Silbey

Mari Silbey — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:59:16 +0000

I agree the industry is going to change, and content owners and distributors have plenty of their own problems to worry about. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to continue to get commercial-free TV unless we’re willing to pay for it. TV on DVDs is a great example. I love the model too, and I’m willing to pay for it.