Here in France, some Internet+television providers have started implementing a new rule : you can't skip commercials on recorded shows.
It was entirely dictated by TV channels, in order to close the obvious "recording loophole" : instead of watching the show in their VOD app, you could record it, and obviously skip all commercials.
Now you can't anymore. There's even a small dialog when you try that tells you that "Due to a specific demand by <TV Channel>, skipping is a disabled feature."
hliyan [3 hidden]5 mins ago
I argued this in 2015:
> "...why I believe you will not escape ads by paying for your content: people who can afford to pay for content are people with money, or people with buying power, in other words, the exact same people advertisers look to target. The more buying power you demonstrate, the more advertisers will target you. So the more you pay to keep ads away, the more advertisers will pay to put them back in..."
grishka [3 hidden]5 mins ago
I'm surprised there's an online component to that. I've never seen such a device in real life but I've always assumed that these have some sort of automatic commercial break recognition and that such features were first introduced way back in the 90s when requiring an internet connection was impractical to say the least.
V99 [3 hidden]5 mins ago
My parents still have a couple, but I think most people's reaction to this is "TiVo still exists?" CableCARDs are going extinct and there are lots of other options to record OTA these days.
jjav [3 hidden]5 mins ago
> "TiVo still exists?"
Certainly that's my reaction that made me click on this. Hard to believe.
Never used TiVo but I ran a MythTV box for a long time, it was really awesome. But it's been ~15+ years or so haven't used it. Can't believe TiVo still exists.
dspillett [3 hidden]5 mins ago
> TiVo still exists?
Not for long. They stopped making hardware a while ago, this feels like the last ditch attempt to find a new business model that works, before it doesn't and what is left of the company is bought and asset stripped (the key remaining asset likely being what data they hold about their customers).
reedf1 [3 hidden]5 mins ago
Reads like an onion article. I've gone to great lengths to avoid ads - but it's a war I am losing. Content is now interleaved with ads at the creative stage in subtle (and not so subtle) ways, this inexorable convolution occurs even on formerly alternative spaces. Let me pay, I want to pay, I'll pay a lot, just stay out of my fucking head.
Leonard_of_Q [3 hidden]5 mins ago
> I've gone to great lengths to avoid ads - but it's a war I am losing. Content is now interleaved with ads at the creative stage...
In the end you'll win this war, maybe not in the way you envisioned but win it you will by avoiding 'content' altogether. There is more than enough to read, listen to, see and do that you don't need 'content' to keep you satisfied. Drop it like the lukewarm turd it is and you'll be better off while they can hide their ads where the sun don't shine.
Source: living ad- and 'content'-free for decades
metalman [3 hidden]5 mins ago
I'll add that much of the 'content' is very carefully designed to be the canvas for the advertisements. ie: the content reaferms your demographic/cultural afinity and opens you up to suggestions that are attached even oblicquely, rather than persuing an interest of your own that actualy benifits you.
By watching media alone instead of it bieng a group outing you give up even the real cultural reafermation of dragging or bieng drug along by friends where doing the thing together is of more interest than the media, unless on the rare occasion when you get to see something world class that you all take with you.
These glowing slabs, aint that.
Beware, Beware the glare.
itake [3 hidden]5 mins ago
must be nice...
On iOS, I see ads for paying for iCloud.
Entering my own apartment, the elevator has ads blasting on the tv.
Wont even start on Windows or web browsers.
sublinear [3 hidden]5 mins ago
I think back on when I consumed the most "content". It was way back before I worked from home. The peer pressure was a significant part of why.
I agree with you otherwise, though.
saturn8601 [3 hidden]5 mins ago
Just in case you don't know the SponsorBlock extension can skip past Youtube interleaved ads, promotional items other time wasters. You can pick and choose what you want to skip and in the Youtube Interface you can also press a button to automatically go past a skipped item you wanted to see.
[1]:https://sponsor.ajay.app/
Also hate clickbait title cards? Theres now an extension to remove those as well: https://dearrow.ajay.app/
This SponsorBlock extension also integrates with yt-dlp so downloaded videos can have ads stripped in the final video. That way you don't even have to ever go to youtube itself. The war isn't over yet and people must keep fighting back.
fercircularbuf [3 hidden]5 mins ago
Yeah, I pay for youtube so I don't have to watch ads, but then youtube creators at some point all decided to jump on the bandwagon of interleaving ads into their content. Many are kind enough to make it easy to jump ahead to when the ad is over, but man, I would much prefer they set up a patreon or just let me pay them through youtube's own UI. Incredibly annoying.
TitaRusell [3 hidden]5 mins ago
Only old school media is holding themselves to a standard. No AI, no sponsored content. And thank god we still have a public broadcaster.
The future is unfortunately propaganda and brain rot.
PlunderBunny [3 hidden]5 mins ago
The only winning move is not to play.
Freak_NL [3 hidden]5 mins ago
What is keeping you hooked to that type of content?
walrus01 [3 hidden]5 mins ago
Once again PLEASE DRINK A VERIFICATION CAN (note this is from 2013, and while its origin is as a shitpost, it's prophetic)
This is a really good example of how capitalism doesn't work so well in a digital economy.
Normally there is are various arguments about how the subscription pays for the development / invitation. But here we have a feature that's been there for more than a decade, the only innovation is figuring how to monetize it.
gblargg [3 hidden]5 mins ago
Isn't this because it's not a free market, e.g. the DMCA and other laws that prevent publishing how to work around digital locks?
agileAlligator [3 hidden]5 mins ago
Yep. IP is not true "property" either, since it is not "scarce"
xiaodai [3 hidden]5 mins ago
can't believe tivo is still around.
tech234a [3 hidden]5 mins ago
They stopped selling new units and lifetime subscriptions about a year ago.
HN.zip
It was entirely dictated by TV channels, in order to close the obvious "recording loophole" : instead of watching the show in their VOD app, you could record it, and obviously skip all commercials.
Now you can't anymore. There's even a small dialog when you try that tells you that "Due to a specific demand by <TV Channel>, skipping is a disabled feature."
> "...why I believe you will not escape ads by paying for your content: people who can afford to pay for content are people with money, or people with buying power, in other words, the exact same people advertisers look to target. The more buying power you demonstrate, the more advertisers will target you. So the more you pay to keep ads away, the more advertisers will pay to put them back in..."
Certainly that's my reaction that made me click on this. Hard to believe.
Never used TiVo but I ran a MythTV box for a long time, it was really awesome. But it's been ~15+ years or so haven't used it. Can't believe TiVo still exists.
Not for long. They stopped making hardware a while ago, this feels like the last ditch attempt to find a new business model that works, before it doesn't and what is left of the company is bought and asset stripped (the key remaining asset likely being what data they hold about their customers).
In the end you'll win this war, maybe not in the way you envisioned but win it you will by avoiding 'content' altogether. There is more than enough to read, listen to, see and do that you don't need 'content' to keep you satisfied. Drop it like the lukewarm turd it is and you'll be better off while they can hide their ads where the sun don't shine.
Source: living ad- and 'content'-free for decades
On iOS, I see ads for paying for iCloud.
Entering my own apartment, the elevator has ads blasting on the tv.
Wont even start on Windows or web browsers.
I agree with you otherwise, though.
Also hate clickbait title cards? Theres now an extension to remove those as well: https://dearrow.ajay.app/
This SponsorBlock extension also integrates with yt-dlp so downloaded videos can have ads stripped in the final video. That way you don't even have to ever go to youtube itself. The war isn't over yet and people must keep fighting back.
The future is unfortunately propaganda and brain rot.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/632877-halo-4/66477630