Don’t Skip That Commercial!

Posted On 28 May 2012

Television networks are having a busy month trying to stamp out new TV-watching technology, including telling a court that skipping a commercial while watching a recorded show is illegal. Yesterday, Fox, NBC, and CBS all sued Dish Network over its digital video recorder with automatic commercial-skipping. The same networks, plus ABC, Univision, and PBS, are gearing up for a May 30 hearing in their cases against Aereo, a New York startup bringing local broadcast TV to the Internet. EFF and Public Knowledge filed an amicus brief supporting Aereo this week.

What’s next? Putting a camera on my TV to make sure I don’t leave the room while the commercials are on?

Ryan Markel

I'm a career support professional and team leader with over two decades of experience. I believe in leading and coaching teams of humans through active listening and empathy. I also work to broaden the understanding of these concepts, as well as of the importance of remote work, a culture of graceful mistakes, and diversity of thought in everyday work environments.

One comment on “Don’t Skip That Commercial!”

Riley M says:

30 May 2012 at 14:55

I find it funny how the networks are pretty much calling people with DVRs criminals. Skipping commercials on DVR recordings is something that has been done for years. Isn’t that what the DVR was created for? I use Auto Hop on my receiver all the time because I would rather not watch ads that get repetitive. Honestly, if I wanted to see those ads, I would just watch the channel during the daytime; they’re almost the same commercials at 1 pm as they are at 7 pm. A Dish co-worker showed me that the commercials are not deleted from the recording because a simple press of the rewind button and the annoying ads are back. I think the networks need a refresh on what the definition of a DVR is. Dish is only making it better.

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