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

Steve Hodge stevehodge at gmail.com
Thu Jan 11 23:54:37 UTC 2007


On 1/12/07, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
>
>
> 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.
>

Useless against 30s or automatic skip. This is just part of the
broadcasters' pipe dream which is to first prevent any sort of skip - only
FF allowed.

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.
>

You still have do something, but it requires far less attention and causes
far less disruption than fast forwarding through ads. This is why the
broadcasters are so opposed to skip functionality. Living outside the US (
i.e. where commercial detection is pretty unreliable) I can assure you that
30s skip is not common and that if it became common it'd be all over for TV
advertising - there would be no point.


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".
>

The first company to come up with a decent alternative will win, just like
iTunes is winning.

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.
>

I suspect that eventually the broadcasters will realise that it is in their
interest to be as accomodating as possible, particularly if
subscription-funded or pay-per-view models become common.

Steve
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