Japanese TV broadcasters are demanding makers of video recorders remove the ability to skip ads from their products.
The chairman of Japan’s top TV broadcaster industry association, the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan, threatens makers of devices which allow ad skipping that “We’ll not turn a blind eye any longer. We’ll start tough negotiations with the makers about this.”
The broadcasters are annoyed that Japanese manufactuers such as Toshiba and Mitsubishi are providing consumers with the ability to skip recording ads in PVRs, or watching them on discs, which they say “endangers” the broadcasters.
Mitsubishi and Toshiba have not commented on the demands.
Whilst Japanese broadcasters might be able to bribe or cajole domestic manufacturers into removing the features (in the US broadcasters have managed to bankrupt some device makers with lawsuits), without any ability to ban the devices outright it would seem non-Japanese manufacturers would simply step in to fill the gap.
i can watch your stupid ads if you pay ME 100$ for each time i watch it XD
Nothing new here. They’ve been wanting a ban on such things since the VHS era (especially when some models had “commercial skip” functions that forwarded a set time frame). They’re just getting more paranoid as people time shift more and more. I know I forward through the ads on my DVR, and always edit my video tapes when archiving. Even when they force ads on you, that’s the time to take a leak, grab a drink and so on, the only good thing they’re for. I’ll even switch tabs during streams, so even forcing the ad doesn’t mean it’ll get watched.
I’m fully aware that ad revenue is vital but I don’t watch TV to be told what to buy or condescended to. I watch TV because I want to watch my stories! Sci-Fi abuses this. Like every 5 minutes is a commercial break and when I was watching Gurren Laggan and Monster for the first time it was REALLY pissing me off! GAAARRR! RAGEQUIT!
If that ever happens people will just resort to bittorrent. Ads suck, simple as that, and life’s too short to suffer through them. Plus we all pay huge cable bills anyway, which is more than enough.
Perhaps if we could just get the content we wanted on demand, instead of being forced to subsidise 200+ useless junk channels as part of a fixed package then ads wouldn’t even be needed.
Hey it’s 2018, how’s Netflix?
This won’t exactly make their Ads get watched anymore often now will it?…
Exactly…