Kellner: Consumers should pay to zap ads

Broadcasting and Cable.com ^ | 5/06/02 | P. J. Bednarski

[GeneD]

Jamie Kellner, chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting System Inc., argued that if personal video recorders like TiVo Inc.'s and SONICblue Inc.'s ReplayTV are going to allow viewers to zap commercials, consumers should pay for the privilege -- as much as $250 per year.

At a dinner with AOL Time Warner executives and the media Sunday in New Orleans -- gathered there for the National Show -- Kellner said he worries that PVRs that will eventually be installed in set-top boxes threaten to destroy commercial TV, which, he argued, is already a fragile business.

He cited a new analyst report that said the "Big Four" broadcast networks spend $18 billion per year on programming and related costs and get a paltry 2 percent return.

One solution, he suggested: Consumers can choose either to have zapless PVRs or to pay the fee to have the capability of skipping by commercials.

[GeneD]

How have your stock options been doing?

[Born to Conserve]

Do people still watch TV?

I stopped during the "War on Terror" when they started with the crawlers on crawlers on crawlers, and the mini "icon commercials". Way too obnoxious.

[Revolting cat!]

We could even improve on the idea by having viewers pay the companies advertising their products for the privilege of not buying those products. Ebryboddy heppy!

[Hodar]

The genie is already out of the bottle. True, advertising pays for the TV shows we all enjoy, and the capability of skipping over the advertisements is presently available on Tivo and DishNetwork sets. The challenge to the TV industry is to manage the air:commercial ratio such that the consumer doesn't feel it's worthwhile to buy an aftermarket 'filter'. Have fewer commercials per block, and charge more for them. If instead of 10 minutes of TV followed by 2 minutes of commercials, I only had 30 seconds of commercials, I may be inclined to put up with the commercials instead of purchasing a device to remove the unwanted portion of my nightly entertainment.

[Samwise]

Mind Boggling Bump

[aomagrat]

I fear icon comercials are the wave of the future. Remember when the little network icons started appearing 24/7? That was just to get us used to the idea of something always being in the lower right corner of the TV.

[Voltage]

How does this work? Do you mute commericials for a set period? I don't see how the machine can tell what are commercials and what is the rest. I only watch FOX News, so recording and playing later is of no interest to me.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Do you own a DVD player? If so, have you noticed the sections of the DVD where you lose control of your player...like the FBI warning?

Soon, I think there will be "movie theatre" type ads on DVDs that will be protected that way.

Makes me sick.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Perhaps Jamie Kellner and the rest of those snobs should PAY US for watching commercials.

[aomagrat]

I was thinking about buying a DVD player until I read in a thread on here about commercials on DVD's that you would not be able to fast forward through. I'll stick with my old VHS.

[RippleFire]

Coming soon: Blipverts!

[Hodar]

Your question is "how does this work"... say you have Dishnetwork's latest receiver, and you are watching TV 'live'. The O'Reily Factor comes on ... yet nature calls... so you hit your 'pause' button, and the unit use's it's internal hard drive to start 'taping' Mr. O'Reilly. You return from your nature call, with a fresh Coke .. and resume. You are now, let's say 4 minutes behind him in real time ... but haven't missed a word. You can watch at your pace, pause and back up 5 seconds if you missed what he said on some point. Now a commercial break occurrs ... so you can jump 'ahead' in time 2 minutes and thus skip the commercials. Now, you are only 2 minutes behind O'Rielly ... with the next commercial 'skip', you'll once again be back 'on time' with him. Benefits ... you got to use the restroom without missing a thing, and you got to skip over those annoying commercials.

[SoDak]

I think you're right. I can see cable companies and networks putting runningh ads in the lower reaches of the picture on a constant basis, then offering a subscription to get rid of the ad. Kind of like what Net Zero and some of those free web access companies pioneered.

[Michael Barnes]

Life changed when I got my TIVO. It is very nice to skip over the 3.5 minutes of commercials..When was the last time anyone watched Saturday Night Live? I managed to stomach it this past weekend; after every skit there was at least a 2.5 minute commercial block, mind you, the skits aren't anymore than 5 minutes, tops.

[RWCon]

threaten to destroy commercial TV, which, he argued, is already a fragile business.

My heart bleeds for the bastards.

[DrDavid]

Didn't TiVo report that the most watched and re-watched segment of the Superbowl, wasn't the game, but the Brittany Spears Pepsi commercial? That would show that Keller's idea that PVR users are stealing from the networks is wrong!

It would help if the programming transmitted was actually worth watching.

[Political Junkie Too]

Uh, public airwaves?

-PJ

[MarkL]

When was the last time anyone watched Saturday Night Live? I managed to stomach it this past weekend; after every skit there was at least a 2.5 minute commercial block, mind you, the skits aren't anymore than 5 minutes, tops.

I was suprised when I watched a bit of SNL just recently... It seems that they break for a few commercials, then return to the show, showing the set, and you hear some of the stage direction audio, then they break for a few more commercials again! What was that about?

Mark

[TightSqueeze]

as much as $250 per year.

This is a sort of an hypothetical Ask Emily... If a person is already hacking satellite TV, would they still need to pay the $250?

[MarkL]

I have an idea... How about we, as cable subscribers, have an option to "opt out" of their channel, so that we don't have to pay for it if we don't want to. Then, we can charge THEM for access into our homes. That way, they could schedule 24x7 commercials!

Mark