[mythtv-users] Zap2it : Ad supported?

[Peter Schachte]

Steve MacLaren wrote:
> The argument, as has been posted on one of the many "zap2it labs going
> away"
> splinter threads, is that before the sun sets on the day the
> advertisement-loaded data service is launched, there will be a
> mythtv-0.21_no_ads version in svn.

I don't think it would be that simple.  If each ad were separately written and
embedded in a show description, it would be pretty hard to remove it.  At the
simplest level, you might see "Enjoy Coke" in the middle of the description of
a Survivor episode.  Maybe you could cut that out automatically.  It gets
harder if it just says "Aren't you thirsty now?"  And when it gets to the
sophistication of "Denny Crane accidentally shoots a stranger with his Smith
and Wesson revolver" or "The team travel to Denver in their Range Rover."

Ultimately, I think advertising could be embedded in prose well enough that it
would have to be removed by hand.  Doing that across thousands of programs per
week would be more painful than just ignoring the stupid ads.

-- 
Peter Schachte              I worry that 10 or 15 years from now, [my child]
schachte at cs.mu.OZ.AU        will come to me and say 'Daddy, where were you
www.cs.mu.oz.au/~schachte/  when they took freedom of the press away from
Phone: +61 3 8344 1338      the Internet?' -- Mike Godwin