Cox disables ad skipping on ABC and ESPN VOD content
By Darren Murph 
posted May 8th 2007 10:45PM
posted May 8th 2007 10:45PM
The constant battle between impatient television viewers and disgruntled providers got a shot of adrenaline today, as Walt Disney's two biggest channels have inked a deal with Cox Communications that is sure to simultaneously appease marketers and enrage customers. Reportedly, Cox will now begin to "disable the fast-forward feature that allows viewers to skip ads" in both ABC and ESPN video-on-demand, meaning that users who choose to view older programming via Cox's VOD channels can smash the FF button 'til their heart's content and get nowhere. Of course, users who actually set their DVR to record said content at its normal airing time are still free (for the moment, at least) to blaze right on through those [Via TechMeMe]
So does that mean Cox is getting money from them to do that?
I can't wait until there's something halfway through a show that I want to watch again, but to fast forward to it I still have to watch the 2 or 3 commercial breaks before it.
Most consumers will do like they do when abused and just accept it. Sure, there will be some (like me) with principals, but most are too lazy to fight back. This is why the percentage of ads as a portion of a viewing hour has constantly increased, and now ads are being inserted as banners during the content viewing portion.
Like all cows, the just grin and take the pnumatic plunger to their foreheads. Moo
and so whats the point of having a DVR, the purpose was to control what you watch, and the only time we americans look forward to watching commercials is during high profile sporting events.