The TV Advert Enforcer

[Monica]

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.

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

I'm hating Phillips more and more. I just replaced their TV and MP3 player that I had with different brands of each which are better. They blow. :mad:

[Beldaran]

lol yeah I read about this on slashdot. My favorite user comment was this one:

"the next step is to simply have metallic arms come out of your chair, pin your arms down, peel your eyeballs open, and moisturize those pupils for 3 minutes."

Dude, fuck phillips. God damn it. What an irritating and pathetic idea. I don't even watch TV anymore, but still. Fuck that. Why don't they just send assault troops to your hourse to tie you down and scream in your face until you just hand over your money de facto.

Next they will invent a device that requires you to pay them money because they told you to.

Fuck Phillips. Fuck big companies. Fuck television. Fuck advertising. Fuck it all.

[MottZilla]

That's the direction some people seem to be taking this world. We need some people with sense to be in charge of things. And start killing people fucking things up too.

[Cloral]

So if you're channel surfing and happen to come across some commercials, you're stuck on that channel? How fucking gay. That'll never catch on unless they force everyone to buy new TVs which they can't.

edit:
I like this comment:
"I would acutally welcome such flags in programs. It will make it so much easier to detect and autoskip commercials in mythtv. Right now it is about 80% accurate in skipping commercials using the methods available. With actual flags in the broadcast this will be 100% effective. Very cool!"

[Aegix Drakan]

:bomb:

This ticks me off. What about people who are skipping between two different channels during commercial breaks?

The main reason I tape my 3 hours of anime each week is so I don't have to watch all the damn commercials which ruin the mood!

:glare: It seems we are being slowly robbed of our free will. Next thing you know, they'll be putting telescreens in our homes, and sending out the Thought police (1984 reference to anyone who's confused by my choice of words)

This company is out to make us all miserable! SHUT THEM DOWN NOW! Oh...but of course :sweat: they bring in big money for the advertising companies, so they will not be shut down...

If this is done...if they force us to watch advertising...I AM GONNA F-ING BOYCATT TV! AND I'M GONNA CALL FOR A GLOBAL F-ING BOYCOTT!

[koopa]

Well, when video recorders first came out there was this legal argument about whether people would use them to skip ads. Some companies wanted to do away with the fast forward button altogether. They lost, and we've got the button.

Perhaps the Phillips guys should remember that.

This idea is just so pathetic that I take my hat off to anyone who hacks such a system, should it ever be made.

[Rainman]

This is just an attempt the to keep the status quo. News flash jackasses, the paradigm has shifted. Deal with it.

[ZTC]

I hope Philips dies a horrible death.

*goes to perform a few hexes and rituals*

[SUCCESSOR]

What a bunch of bullshit. I don't like the idea that people who would approve or encourage this idea are in existence and I do wish upon them the most unspeakably painful death.

Also it won't work. What they are basicly saying is that We've invented away to fuck you over unless you pays us money. I really don't see the average human as being that fucking stupid. Anyway I hope it goes through. Maybe it'll stop a lot of people from watching so much fucking television. This could be a possitive thing.

An apt moment for Bill I suppose.

"By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself.... There's no rationalisation for what you do and you are Satan's little helpers.... You are the ruiner of all things good, seriously.... You are fucked and you are fucking us. Kill yourself."

[Archibaldo]

They kind already have that on some DVDs. During the previews you can't fast forward or skip to the menu button. But how will the TV know what part of the show is commercial and what part is TV?

[Cloral]

They embed data in the tv broadcasts now, which can tell things like which program you're watching, when it started, and when it will end. They can embed similar data that tells whether the station is currently broadcasting a commercial, or they can embed flags at each end of a commercial break to tell that it started and that it stopped.

[mikeron]

This is just an attempt the to keep the status quo. News flash jackasses, the paradigm has shifted. Deal with it.Sure, it all seems Catch 22 when you've got 20-20 hindsight, but we need to think outside the box and be pro-active.

[goKi]

A device that forces a channel to stay selected for 5 minutes once it has been selected for over 30 seconds was introduced a long while back, marketed at women who hated their husband's channel surfing habits.

If a woman is that damn petty, i'm sure the man can think of a device that would work much better, a divorce paper.

[Monica]

SAN JOSE, Calif. - In this era of easy ad skipping with TiVo-like video recorders, could television viewers one day be forced to watch commercials with a system that prevents channel switching?

Yes, according to Royal Philips Electronics. A patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says researchers of the Netherland-based consumer electronics company have created a technology that could let broadcasters freeze a channel during a commercial, so viewers wouldn't be able to avoid it.

The pending patent, published on March 30, says the feature would be implemented on a program-by-program basis. Devices that could carry the technology would be a television or a set-top-box.

Philips acknowledged, however, that the anti-channel changing technology might not sit well with consumers and suggested in its patent filing that consumers be allowed to avoid the feature if they paid broadcasters a fee.

On Wednesday, company officials issued a statement that noted the technology also enables the opposite: allowing viewers to watch television without advertising. The intention was never to force viewers to watch ads against their will, the company said of the technology.

"We developed a system where the viewer can choose, at the beginning of a movie, to either watch the movie without ads, or watch the movie with ads," the company stated. "It is up to the viewer to take this decision, and up to the broadcaster to offer the various services."

The company also said it had no plans to use the technology in any of its products.

Philips wanted to provide the technology and seek the patent only as part of the broader developments within the industry, Philips spokesman Andre Manning said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12407199/

More from NBC.

[koopa]

"We developed a system where the viewer can choose, at the beginning of a movie, to either watch the movie without ads, or watch the movie with ads," the company stated. "It is up to the viewer to take this decision, and up to the broadcaster to offer the various services."

The company also said it had no plans to use the technology in any of its products.

Philips wanted to provide the technology and seek the patent only as part of the broader developments within the industry, Philips spokesman Andre Manning said.


Now why don't I believe that?

Technical point: If you buy a new television set with such, er, technology included it might work. But if you buy a new set-top box and connect it to your existing TV, I doubt it will work, unless the "prevent channel switch" feature is in fact already built in our TVs without us knowing (which I don't think it is). I don't think a set-top box can prevent today's TV sets from channel switching.

So either they'll have to make us all buy new TVs with this "feature" built in, or ... it will not work.

[Aegix Drakan]

I honestly don't know what to say at this point.

They're gonna do it. regardless of how loud we shout....

I think it would be beneficial to all of us to learn how to hack this system. the ads are annoying enough. why do they have to force feed it to us?

And why do I get the feeling that the Ad-less option is either not going to be implemented, or it's gonna cost 30$ per hour of no commercials.

They said they had no plans to use this...then why did they invent it in the first place? what a load of...

(hope for humanity decreases by 1 point) <.< that's two lost points in one day...not a good sign...

[Raichu86]

I think it'd be pretty foolish for them to try to get this technology to work out in the end. Escaping its effects from broadcast TV would probably be as simple as feeding the TV's antenna through a little device that strips the signal of its ad codes and such. For if you're recording it on a DVR, somebody'll have a hack out in no time. To me, it seems like a waste of money because it'll just be escaped by people who care... almost like copyright protection on CDs, which limits people who don't break the law while doing little to stop people who have malevolent intentions.