Very amusing rant on TBS CEO's recent assertion that TV viewers who skip ads are guilty of "stealing" and breaking their contract with the network providing the show. The author even manages a reference to that classic and personal favorite of mine -- Max Headroom.
Here's the article.
Although Kellner was focused on the inceasing threat of PVR technology (he claimed that 70% of PVR users skip the ads), I personally have been "stealing" programming for years with one of the many VCRs that offer commercial skip. Seems to me that advertisers are already moving quickly to find other ways to get their message across, most top shows are now filled with all sorts of product placements even to the point where they go back after the fact to replace billboards seen in real life. Maybe we will eventually go back to the early days of TV when every show was sponsered. Or maybe we will end up watching ad free pay-TV at a much "higher" cost like XM and Sirius are trying to do for radio. I however hope that the rest of you never figure out how to skip ads on TV, because I'm too cheap to pay and I'm getting tired of how ads are finding their way into everything from movie theaters, to PBS, to ad Pop-ups on the Internet.