Philips Patents "TV-advert enforcer"

I'm sorry if this has been posted before...

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.

Full Story Here.

gotta give them credit for invention, you know this is gonna catch on especially when they can charge an extra fee to allow you to ff through the commercials.

...not to mention the thousands (including myself) who would never spend another DIME on anything made by that company again.

Originally Posted by CBC

...not to mention the thousands (including myself) who would never spend another DIME on anything made by that company again.

Wouldn't it really be the programming provider, such as Comcast, Dish, DirecTV, etc, that would have to license it and implement it? It seems that your anger, while definitely valid, is directed at the wrong company. Philips patented an idea, maybe just so Sony or someone else didn't do it first.

Also, what happens when you turn on your TV and it's in a commercial break? I guess you would have to suffer until the show came on to change the channel, possibly to another commercial break, repeating the process.

With the current trends in advertising, I can't believe that they don't populate half the screen with scrolling advertisements during the television programs. Sure they have a little blurb here and there, but I'm waiting for the day you have the news ticker type adverts crossing your screen.

On a similar note:
When "Lost" aired a few weeks ago, there were several scenes in subtitles. Our local ABC affiliate decided to display news highlights at the very moment the subtitles were showing on the screen. Unfortunately for me, I don't understand Korean and missed most of the conversations. The next day I emailed the station manager and she promised to never place banners on the screen during "Lost". Since then, she has kept her promise.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who complained.

guess I'll have to re-learn how to read books again...lol
If I'm paying the exorbiant for my cableTV connection that I currently do, only to be told that I have to watch the programming per someone else's "instructions", then that will be the day I consider other forms of entertainment

How about lawsuits from companies/networks suing each other because when they're stopping you from changing the channel during one ad, they're preventing you from seeing an ad on another channel?

Next, they're going to tie your legs together so you can't go to pee during a commercial. (Or is that invention going to be sponsored by the adult diaper people?)

well, I guess I'd rather have Phillips own this technology then Sony. Phillips has very little say in the content industry, where Sony has a lot of weight.

If Sony had this, it'll be a nightmare for anybody buying their TV's, DVD players/recorders.

Originally Posted by SilverBlade

well, I guess I'd rather have Phillips own this technology then Sony. Phillips has very little say in the content industry, where Sony has a lot of weight.

If Sony had this, it'll be a nightmare for anybody buying their TV's, DVD players/recorders.

Ironically Sony and Philips have jointly worked on tons of projects and have a long-standing relationship. CD was a joint Sony-Philips development (so is Red Book standard and CD format specs) if my memory serves me correctly...

Originally Posted by PhoneMatt

Next, they're going to tie your legs together so you can't go to pee during a commercial. (Or is that invention going to be sponsored by the adult diaper people?)

Sony is working on a brainstem virus, so their customers will no longer be able to buy or even think about any products that aren't Sony branded. Of course like everything Sony, they'll mess it up and ship the virus first, and kill off most of thier customer base when it takes 6 months for the $27.95 loaf of Sony bread and $69.95 gallon of Sony water to hit the store shelves..

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Soon even the power button could be a thing of the past. It should be on their end to make things simple. As a valued customer at the moment of signing you will surrender your credit cards to Sony/Philips with unrectricted direct acces. They will figure a way to make you happy...

Originally Posted by InXess

Soon even the power button could be a thing of the past. It should be on their end to make things simple. As a valued customer at the moment of signing you will surrender your credit cards to Sony/Philips with unrectricted direct acces. They will figure a way to make you happy...

Just like some Orwellian nightmare. We'll be subjected to television 24/7. Not only will the television receive video, it will also send video of everything you do. The only peace you'll get is when you are asleep. Even then, your dreams will be plagued by fears of the thought police; that anytime, anywhere, they can come take you away for betrayal of "they party".

Nope. Don't see it happening.

I think it's all a moot point. You have content on demand to some extent now and at some point it's all going to be content on demand. You're either going to be stuck watching the commecials for "free" broadcasts or be paying for content with no commercials.... They do it now on most commercial sites where there is ad before you view a video. that's what you'll see in the future.


It will all come down to what the market will stand and what the consumer is willing to pay. I don't think too many people will be purchasing content if they are forced to watch a million commercials on the other hand they wil be forced to watch them if they want free content.

Personally I gave up on TV a long time ago. If I watch 1 hour a day that's a lot and that's either the news or something like the History channel.

If this were ever used I'm sure they'd place some boundaries. Like the lock wouldn't kick in unless you were logged as watching that channel so many minutes...just some such calculation to ensure that you are actually watching that program and not just channel surfing.

Also another thing that is worth mentioning is that IF using this method actually increased sales for the advertised products then the content provider could actually reduce the number of commercials. Personally, I'd prefer to be forced to watch say 1 commercial at the normal interval as opposed to being free to flip, only to jump from one commercial break to another. This is probably wishful thinking though. More than likely the content provider would exploit this if they used it at all.

But with all that said, forget it! This is just one of those technologies that will always piss people off no matter how its implemented. Even the patent itself notes that people would resent this. I think that the direct reduction in ratings that this would cause would offset any increase in ad sales.

This is just one of those, "just in case" patents. In 10 years when on demand becomes the norm, who knows, we may think this technology is tame compared to others.