Microsoft patent to cover penalising users who skip TV Ads

[wtg]

I don't think this is an MS thing... it's the entertainment industry. The patent Microsoft filed is just an effort to capitalize on something they feel the entertainment industry will require. I'm sure there are lots of other companies wishing they'd done it too, since it's pretty clear the entertainment industry is going to require and probably experiment with various options before releasing the flood gates on digital media.

It's not much different from TIVO not providing a true commercial skip feature (and doesn't it take a hack to enable the 30-sec skip feature?), TIVO experimenting on PPV that you can only watch a couple of times or expires after a little while, and XM pulling their PC card product when someone posted a hack to record digital music to their hard drives.

I doubt MS cares at all whether people skip commercials or not, but they know the entertainment industry does and they want to be a player with them. If they can make any other player pay to use their patent, all the better for them...

Wanna really get me fired up... start a rant about friggin' out of control software patents. That's what bothers me most about MS's annoucement.

By the way... anyone recall when Top Gun was first released on video? It started with a Pepsi commercial. People for the most part didn't complain because it came out as one of the least expensive major motion pictures to be released on video. People were willing to sit through, or FF through, the one commercial and save a few bucks. My guess is if anything does come of this MS technology that's how it'll be done... PPV movie that's $2.50 if you get it with commercials, $3.99 without.

[LilY0da]

But that's exactly my point...
In that case, they are moving to block a measure that (as you say) could result in no ad beeing seen on shows ever by anyone. So they are planning on legislating on something that *could* be a problem, in spite of them not really knowing if it'll be more dangerous than channel flipping, popcorn making or taking a bathroom break.

I don't know about you but for me, being on the receiving end of that legislation pisses me off seriously.

[capone]

I think a lot of things get patented, now more than ever. Doesn't matter if you ever plan to do it. You want to patent something if a) you can prove you can do it, and b) so if anyone ever wants what you're patenting, you can make money on it.

MS, and pretty much everyone for that matter, is patenting everything short of future walking patterns that include a hop every third step. While it's probably notable what it patented, I think it's way less a glance at the future than it is a bunch of alternative realities. I'm sure there are many patents on the flying car that have been around from the 50s, and yet I'm still driving to the store.

In short, I would be more interested than worried.

[wtg]

But that's exactly my point...
In that case, they are moving to block a measure that (as you say) could result in no ad beeing seen on shows ever by anyone. So they are planning on legislating on something that *could* be a problem, in spite of them not really knowing if it'll be more dangerous than channel flipping, popcorn making or taking a bathroom break.

Well I don't know about you, but having a commercial skip feature, I do use it. And my guess is if everyone had one a very significant percentage of the population would use it too. Is there really much question about whether this would be a problem for networks and their advertisers if the entire viewing audience had this option? Commercials make up the bulk of network revenue... how else are they supposed to pay for their TV production?

By the way, you know it's not a coincidence that networks air their commercials at approximately the same time, right? It's essentially a gentlemen's agreement between the networks to not reward viewers for changing channels. Once you realize you're probably just going to get commercials on the other stations you tend to leave it alone.

I don't know about you but for me, being on the receiving end of that legislation pisses me off seriously.

You and me both... if any legislation makes it to law it won't make the consumer happy, at least not the technical savvy one like you and me. My point was if something like commercial skipping became mainstream they'd be forced to do something, and I don't think we can blame them much for doing something. Of course a smart network exec knows people will be less upset if they don't know what they are missing than if they waited for TIVO to sell a box with built-in, automatic commercial skip, everyone bought it, and then the feature got turned off. Now if you had a legislator in your pocket, what would you do?

I think our little commercial skip feature will only have a legal future if it remains unavailable to the masses.

[bdgbill]

I think digital TV will bring other options such as commercials people actually WANT to see. I would love to get on my cable companies website and sign up for commercials I am interested in. I would be far less likely to skip an ad for say... Best Buy then I would an ad for Tampax.

I really don't mind commercials too much. Often when I am watching a recorded show I forget it's recorded and end up watching the ads anyway.

TV has to compete more and more with DVD's. If TV actually finds a way to force ads down peoples throats they will just drive viewers away from broadcast TV to DVD's and other options.

[nitrogen_widget]

Maybe if the commercials wern't so annoying or stupid....

I think i'll just wait & see if this actually happens.
The last thing people want in their home's is someone else who can peek in & see what their watching on TV.
It almost seems like an invasion of privacy.

[LilY0da]

TV has to compete more and more with DVD's. If TV actually finds a way to force ads down peoples throats they will just drive viewers away from broadcast TV to DVD's and other options.

Actually, the "broadcast flag" and other projects are underway to make sure you don't skip through the commercials at the beginning of your DVD either...:eek:

[bdgbill]

Actually, the "broadcast flag" and other projects are underway to make sure you don't skip through the commercials at the beginning of your DVD either...

About a year ago I was seeing ads that could not be skipped on DVD's I was renting from Blocbuster. At that time there was a huge uproar online about it. I have not seen an unskippable ad on DVD for quite a while now.