ABC Still Excited About DVRs That Disable Fast Forward

from the bad,-bad-ideas dept

A few months ago, we wrote about how ABC was excitedly testing a new DVR technology that would prevent people from fast forwarding through commercials on their DVR. If this seems dumb and destined to fail, that's because it's dumb and destined to fail. You don't compete with things like a fully functional DVR that has features people want by creating a crappy DVR that doesn't have the features people want. That story got plenty of attention -- which should have made its way back to ABC. But, if it did, the company is ignoring it. As reader Joey writes in to let us know, at ABC's recent "upfronts" where it pitches its latest efforts to advertisers, it's still excitedly pushing the idea of the fast-forward-disabled DVR (in the update at 4:34). The NY Times reporter claimed it was "a fancy way to combat DVR use." Except, that it's not. It's a dumb way to combat DVR use because all it will do is anger a bunch of people and get them to go out and buy a DVR that doesn't do that sort of thing.

Filed Under: commercials, dvrs, fast forward
Companies: abc, disney

Dear ABC, You Don't Compete With TiVo By Making A Product Worse

from the just-a-suggestion dept

About a year and a half ago, an executive at Disney-owned ABC-TV talked about how the network was experimenting with ways to block people from fast forwarding through commercials. The exec in question even claimed that commercial-skipping wasn't even a very important feature for most DVR-owners. Despite the widespread criticism of this statement, it appears that ABC is now preparing to test that theory. In association with cable company Cox, it's testing a new video-on-demand feature that won't let viewers fast forward through commercials. We'll be the first to say it: this is dumb. While it may make a few more people watch commercials, it won't make them happy about it. And, given just how many other options there are these days, the end result might be that people just choose not to watch such ABC programming at all, let alone the commercials.

Yet various ABC executives seem to think that by offering this product, they can stop people from buying DVRs. Anne Sweeney, the president of the Disney-ABC television group, claims: "You don't need TiVo if you have fast-forward-disabled video on demand. It gives you the same opportunity to catch up to your favorite shows." Not quite. First of all, you're limited to shows on ABC. Second, who knows if the additional features are as useful. Finally, one of the nice things about TiVo (oh, right!) is that it lets you watch a 30-minute show in 22-minutes, since you can skip the commercials (whoops). So, yes, many people will still want a TiVo because ABC is forcing the fast forward option to be disabled.

Then there's Ray Cole, who owns some ABC affiliates. He says: "As network and affiliates, we both have an interest in slowing down the explosive growth of DVRs. This is about combating DVRs. As we developed this at every stage, there was an agreement that however we put this together, disabling the fast-forward function was key." I'm curious as to how Mr. Cole thinks offering a product that does much less and deliberately takes away a key feature will "slow down" the "explosive growth of DVRs." You don't compete by offering a worse product. You compete by offering a better product. Taking away one of the key selling points of a product is not exactly a major selling point.

Filed Under: commercials, dvrs, fast forward
Companies: abc, cox

Time Warner Cable To Enable Time Shifting... But Without A Fast Forward Feature

from the why-are-you-in-such-a-rush? dept

Back in 2003, Time Warner began work on what it hoped would be a TiVo-killer. It would be a centralized system that would allow people to time shift TV shows like they would with a local DVR, but all the processing and storage would be at Time Warner itself. Of course, even when this plan was first announced, many were skeptical. Other divisions within Time Warner wouldn't be happy about aiding and abetting consumers potentially skipping commercials. In fact, pressure from others eventually forced Time Warner to drastically scale back the plans and release a much simpler service that would let some users "start over" if they happened to pick up a show after it had started. There was no fast forwarding and no commercial skipping. You could just "start over." Of course, perhaps they were just doing that to avoid the inevitable lawsuit. A few years later, Cablevision decided that it would offer a centralized DVR and was quickly sued for doing so. Amazingly, Cablevision lost that case (though, there's still an appeals process).

Time Warner, then, is obviously being careful as it expands it's "start over" service. It only took the company three years to morph the start over service into the "look back" service, that will basically let you watch any show that was broadcast earlier in the day. Of course, it only goes back one day, and you can't fast forward through the commercials. Apparently, there are still TV execs out there who think that commercial skipping isn't a key feature of DVRs. Rather than trying to prevent popular features, wouldn't these companies be better off coming up with creative ideas that don't involve pissing off customers?

Filed Under: commercials, dvrs, fast forward
Companies: cablevision, time warner cable