Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems IA45 Question

Taking it to the extreme, I remember this at the time it was reported as I was one of the first and few TiVo users in the UK and it caught my attention:

http://www.2600.com/news/view/article/1113

SKIPPING COMMERCIALS IS STEALING ACCORDING TO TURNER CEO
Posted 1 May 2002 11:05:57 UTC

It was inevitable. The broadcast industry is now describing people who skip over commercials as thieves! And with new technology like HDTV and insane laws such as the DMCA, they may very well make it stick in the future.

Jamie Kellner is the chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting, which encompasses everything from CNN to TNT and is a part of AOL Time Warner. On Monday, an interview with Kellner appeared in CableWorld.

In response to a question on why personal video recorders (PVR's) were bad for the industry, Kellner responded: "Because of the ad skips.... It's theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually stealing the programming."

While most programming on American TV is so insultingly bad that nobody would ever need to steal it in the first place, there is great danger in permitting this line of reasoning to become accepted. If this is seen as a "problem," expect legislation forbidding any device that allows consumers to skip the sacred commercial. Kellner, however, is not completely unreasonable. When asked if he considers people who go to the bathroom during a commercial to be thieves, he responded: "I guess there's a certain amount of tolerance for going to the bathroom. But if you formalize it and you create a device that skips certain second increments, you've got that only for one reason, unless you go to the bathroom for 30 seconds. They've done that just to make it easy for someone to skip a commercial."

Mark

Kellner...what a w***er.

Indeed. Of course, we in the UK are, unfortunately, following the US broadasting trends and so we now get:

"Previously on..."

or

"Tonight on..."

or

Revisted episodes (45 mins of repeats and 5 mins of original). When I complained about these to one broadcaster I was told that consumers love the revisited format and thus they will continue. Oh really?!

All this coupled with extended ad breaks and interruptions to credit sequences. The upshot being, more advertising and less original programming...

I even read about how in the US they drop frames from original content so that they can recover frames to create longer advertising slots. Not sure if that's true though.

The upshot is that I increasingly choose to watch less "live" TV and prefer to purchase the DVD series of "worthy" shows so that I can watch them uninterrupted... Only problem with that is that the UK newspapers ABSOLUTELY LOVE to spoil programs by giving advance details of upcoming cliffhangers/revelations/etc and so it's often tricky avoiding spoilers while you wait for the disc set to be released, but that's another rant for another day.

Mark

I don't actually watch much TV these days, but I made an exception for the re-working of Battlestar Galactica which, IMO, is simply superb. However, I was utterly *astonished* that each episode has a fast flick montage of what was about to happen at the beginning of each show. Thank goodness for fast forward on my SkyHD+ (PVR).

First two and a half seasons were fantastic... final season and a half I am not so sure...


I frackin' hate that. I simply put my hand in front of my face until I hear the intro music indicate the end of the sequence. It's like going to the cinema to watch a movie and have the "only a twat would pirate a film" montage showing footage from the movie you are about to watch! [censored]?!

Mark

Yep. Still ruins every episode of Thunderbirds that I watch even now

Yes, it's such an automatic response for me, I reckon I've developed muscle memory for my eyelids.