Commentary

Point That Finger In The Other Direction

I can't think of another industry with as much dysfunctional interdependence as the television business. The programmers need and hate the carriers, advertisers need and hate the networks, and everyone needs but hates their cable company.

So it’s not a big surprise that all of the major TV networks, with the odd exception of ABC, have filed lawsuits against Dish Network forits newAutoHopfeature, which lets subscribers instantly skip commercials within a few hours after they have recorded prime-time programming. CBS says that AutoHop"takes existing network content and modifies it in a manner that is unauthorized and illegal....a clear violation of copyright law...." Since this is America, Dish has countersued Fox, CBS, and NBC, as well as poor old ABC, requesting a ruling that AutoHop does not violate any copyrights and that Dish has not breached any contracts it has with the broadcast networks by offering it.

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Auto-skip is not new, really. I once held onto an earlier vision of a Replay TV DVR for years after an upgrade, because the upgrade had yielded to network pressure and removed the feature that let you skip ahead in 30-second increments.

Rather than try and make the convoluted and unconvincing argument that commercials are part of a network's "copyrighted" content, the nets need to look at why Dish -- or anyone else for that matter -- thinks there is a market for a machine that eliminates those 20+minutes per hour that clearly annoy or enrage audiences.

"Viewers have been skipping commercials since the advent of the remote control; we are giving them a feature they want and that gives them more control," said a Dish exec in a statement. Long before remote control was the industry standard, there was a college professor in my hometown who rigged his TV with a corded mute button that allowed him to kill the sound when commercials started. He was the envy of his neighborhood.

There was a time you could argue that watching commercials was the price of getting "free" TV, but now, because nearly everyone has a substantial cable (or Dish) monthly bill, they no longer regard TV in any way as "free." Doesn't matter to the average Joe that most of the money goes to the carriers, and not to the programmers. All he knows is that three things have happened at the same time: TV has gotten expensive to watch; there are more commercials than ever in history; and programming quality on the big legacy networks has gone to hell, with cheaper-to-produce reality, "news" and talent shows replacing compelling drama and comedy.

Like everyone else, I tape nearly everything before I watch it, and am appalled by the duration of the pods that I fast-forward past in prime-time programming. If I had to watch them in real-time, I would put a bullet through my head (or the TV). All the commercials give the appearance that the networks don't give two shits about the viewer experience and are simply in a land-grab for brand dollars. And while I certainly understand the necessity of frequency to reach as much of the target audience as possible, the brands do themselves no favors by showing me the same commercial for the nth time.

An added advantage of skipping commercials is that you can watch a prime-time show in 40 minutes instead of 60, and a football game in about an hour and change, instead of three or four tediously interrupted hours.

In this day and age of datamathletes, I am certain that each and every network can put a value on my attention. So make me an offer. Use up a little more of that cable bandwidth and offer me your programming commercial-free up the spectrum in exchange for a small monthly fee. I am happy to pay HBO and Showtime and Cinemax, even if only for those couple of shows a week that I actually watch. But know this -- I may NOT subscribe to any network service. The vast majority of my week is already commercial-free because of superior cable programming quality (well, nudity and violent death, anyway). Until you can match “The Wire,” “The Sopranos,” “Oz,” “Deadwood,” “Weeds,” “Tudors,” “Shameless,” “Boardwalk Empire” – and, god-help-us, “Spartacus,” “The Borgias,” and “GIRLS” -- best not put yourself up for referendum.

Meanwhile, don’t blame the advances of technology that can skip past your revenue. Rather, ask what’s wrong with your model that makes this product so intriguing for viewers.

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