September 16th, 2006
FX Works Around Us Ad-Skippers … Sorta
By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
FX has an interesting idea to get around us ad-skippers. Yes, yes, I have a Tivo, and yes, I very rarely watch commercials … or live TV for that matter. I wasn’t happy to read about Philips’ technological development to stop us ad-skippers. FX takes a low-tech approach.
The ad for Showtime’s new drama “Brotherhood” will show a single image on the screen for the entire 30-second slot, and therefore retain its “sales message” when viewed even at the 12-times speeds enabled by digital video recorders, or DVRs. Source: News.com
We Say: Well, the problem is … even though Tivo does not have a 30 second skip built-in (meaning by default you have to fast-forward through commercials), there’s a well known hack that will fix that … and FX’s attempt to stop us from skipping the commercial. And most other DVRs have 30-second skips by default. 
Deadeye says:
When did Showtime start using commercials during their programming?
September 16th, 2006 at 2:52 am
MissingFrame says:
This is a commercial FOR their programming, not during. And as long as people are so easily motivated by annoying adverts, this will work. Too bad you can’t change human behavior so easy.
September 16th, 2006 at 8:08 am
Dirtboy says:
And if you don’t have a Tivo? You have a static image on the screen for a full 30 seconds. As if regular commercials weren’t annoying enough.
September 16th, 2006 at 10:22 am
Rob says:
Hey, look on the bright side: *silent* commercials!
September 16th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Snopesman says:
This is far superior to the “jack up the volume” approach that FX has used in the past.
Long live my TiVo … and I don’t care if I have to look at a static image … so what, it’s gone in 2.5 seconds.
September 19th, 2006 at 11:13 am