[mythtv-users] Daddy, what's a commercial - [OT offering]

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Thu Jan 11 23:19:58 UTC 2007


On Jan 11, 2007, at 4:13 PM, Steve Hodge wrote:

> On 1/12/07, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
>
> My guess is purely subscription funded TV initially and probably  
> pay-per-view (probably on demand, e.g. downloads) in the long term.  
> Somebody will probably try more intrusive ads such a banners, but I  
> don't think the public will accept it. Free to air, advertising- 
> funded networks will have to find a new business model or go broke.

There is already talk of commercials with more or less static visual  
messages that would be seen in FFWDing through a spot.

>
> As long as Myth remains a "hobbyist" application I don't think the
> advertisers will perceive us as much of a threat as far as commercial
> skipping.
>
> The writing is on the wall. If it's not MythTV it'll be something  
> else. E.g. LG have released TVs in Australia with inbuild HDDs that  
> support 30 second skip (50PB2DR, 42LC2DR). Incidentally Australian  
> TV networks refused to air commercials touting that feature.

A 30-second skip is fairly common today. A TiVo can do it with a  
simple hack, TiVi is smart enough to not ship units that have the  
feature out of the box.

But you have to have the remote in hand and take a positive step  
(push the button) for each 30-second skip. Inevitably you will wind  
up watching *some* of the spots.
>
> If it were to go commercial in a big way that would be a different
> story, look what happened with ReplayTV.
>
> Naturally broadcasters will try to protect the status quo in the  
> face of change, but in the end they'll lose. It's inevitable.

I agree, but the end can sometimes be pretty far away, and the  
broadcasters can be pretty persistent. Look how they just never seem  
to give on the "broadcast flag".

>
> That's one of the reasons I get nervous when outfits try and sell
> commercial Myth systems. I'm afraid the advertising community would
> put pressure on Tribune to stop making things easier for us.
>
> That may well happen, and if it does then MythTV community will  
> adapt. Don't forget that those of us that don't live in North  
> America are already in that situation.
>
And we here in NA had to "scrape the screen" before DataDirect. I  
think Tribune came up with DD because they realized it would put less  
load on their system.

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