Philips filed a patent in which it states it developed a technology that will make it impossible to zap away if there’s a commercial break, thus forcing the viewer to either go away himself or to sit there and take it like a big boy. If you want to skip the ads you can, if you are willing to pony up some money for it.
The Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) pre-scans marked areas and if one of those areas is defined as a commercial break, a technical lock will prevent the viewer to switch the channel for the entire length of that commercial intermezzo. This would be applied on live television, but there’s also a part of the technology which would prevent you from fast forwarding through recorded data !
My little finger senses violation of the right of consumers and their privacy, and without any doubt Philips will have a ‘decent’ explanation ready to justify this business model.
From the US Patent & Trademark Office:
Apparatus and method for preventing switching from a channel during an advertisement display
An apparatus (270) and method is disclosed for preventing a viewer from switching from a channel when an advertisement is being displayed on the channel. The apparatus (270) and method comprises an advertisement controller (270) in a video playback device (150) that (1) prevents a viewer of a direct (non-recorded) broadcast from switching channels when an advertisement is displayed, and (2) prevents a viewer of a recorded program from fast forwarding the recorded program in order to skip past advertisements that were recorded with the program. A viewer may either watch the advertisements or pay a fee in order to be able to change channels or fast forward when the advertisements are being displayed.
Read the entire patent application. | Thanks, Ben
UPDATE: Philips wrote to Engadget about this:
“(Philips) filed a patent application, as yet not granted, that enables watching a television movie without advertising. However, some people do want to see the ads. So, 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. It is up to the viewer to take this decision, and up to the broadcaster to offer the various services. Philips never had the intention to force viewers to watch ads against their will and does not use this technology in any current Philips products, nor do we have any plans to do so.”
Funny. That’s not what I would interpret when I read the patent application. But if they say so…
