Watch Ads Compulsorily

Imagine the horror of being forced to watched adverts on TV. Cant switch stations. Cant fast-forward recorded programs. Somebody help!

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn9011&feedId=online-news_rss20

The advert enforcer

If a new idea from Philips catches on, the company may not be very popular with TV viewers. The company's labs in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, has been cooking up a way to stop people changing channels to avoid adverts or fast forwarding through ads they have recorded along with their target programme.

The secret, according to a new patent filing, is to take advantage of Multimedia Home Platform - the technology behind interactive television in many countries around the world. MHP software now comes built into most modern digital TV receivers and recorders. It looks for digital flags buried in a broadcast, and displays messages on screen that let the viewer call up extra features, such as additional footage or information about a programme.

Philips suggests adding flags to commercial breaks to stop a viewer from changing channels until the adverts are over. The flags could also be recognised by digital video recorders, which would then disable the fast forward control while the ads are playing.

Philips' patent acknowledges that this may be "greatly resented by viewers" who could initially think their equipment has gone wrong. So it suggests the new system could throw up a warning on screen when it is enforcing advert viewing. The patent also suggests that the system could offer viewers the chance to pay a fee interactively to go back to skipping adverts.

The full patent here http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220060070095%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20060070095&RS=DN/20060070095

People will simply refuse to buy new TV sets that have this 'feature' in them, since old tv sets do not. This is a lovely idea that would help speed up the demise of the TV medium. Bravo, Phillips!

Weird?

considering the fact that this feature will be present in modern 103" plasma tvs et al, i think it might be a small price to pay for "better" entertainment. large screen, better sound and five minutes compulsory adverts.

leave it to hackers to find a way around it.

There is no way that this will not be countered. How annoying will that be?

You may have an important program to watch on another channel and this silly feature could make you miss it!

I cannot see this catching on at all!