Network Tries to Foil Ad Skipping. The schedule of a new cable network, Fine Living, has been to set up to foil personal video recorders like TiVo from digitally skipping commercials. By Bernard Stamler. [New York Times: Business] [Roymond Radio]

Heh.  The headline and summary are bogus.  They're still using normal ads, which PVRs will continue to skip.  The only thing that's different is that they're turning their shows into advertisements.  That idea's not new -- they're called infomercials, and nobody watches 'em.

I wouldn't complain if this sort of sponsorship were to replace traditional advertisements.  But using them in addition to regular ads runs the risk of alienating your audience.  Networks currently deliver at most 22 minutes of entertainment for every 30 minutes of airtime.  How much lower do they think they can drive that percentage before viewers tune out?

I'm already imagining ways to automatically skip these new ad segments.  It only takes one person to mark ads, and everybody else benefits.  Think CDDB.

8:52:44 PM