.| UrbanNerd |.

Look at this gem of wisdom from Mike Shaw of ABC network TV:

Mike Shaw, ABC’s President of Advertising Sales, said this week that he would love to have the opportunity to shut down the “fast forward” button on users’ DVRs. Though he did not claim that commercial-skipping TiVo owners were thieves, Shaw is clearly unhappy with how easy it is to skip his network’s ads.

Shutting down the fast forward feature on DVR isn’t an easy proposition, though; ABC would require support from DVR makers, who could build their devices to recognize the presence of a broadcast flag. The flag would tell the DVR whether fast forwarding should be allowed during any particular show. But what DVR maker would want to do this? Shaw told MediaDailyNews that he “would love it if the MSOs [cable companies], during the deployment of the new DVRs they’re putting out there, would disable the fast-forward [button].”

And I would love it if you shut-the-fuck-up Mike. If TiVo were ever to do this/allow this to happen, you can bet I would go to a PC based solution in a heartbeat. But they arn’t going to let it to happen; how do you take away a feature from customers? What a moron this guy is. He even believes that we won’t notice:

What about a customer backlash? In Shaw’s view, this is unlikely, as he believes that most people enjoy their DVRs simply because they can time-shift video content like a high-tech VCR; commercial skipping is just gravy. Take away the gravy, and customers should still be happy to eat their mashed potatoes.

The only mashed potatoes here are in Mike’s brain.
Story Source: arstechnica