TiVo was a godsend, but ad-skipping goes back at least to VCR time-shifting and the invention of the scan button. (Before that, the screen went black when you fast-forwarded.)
For now many services do offer commercial free tiers, though they keep boosting the cost of the privilege. (And as with the airlines' race to the bottom, revealed p…
TiVo was a godsend, but ad-skipping goes back at least to VCR time-shifting and the invention of the scan button. (Before that, the screen went black when you fast-forwarded.)
For now many services do offer commercial free tiers, though they keep boosting the cost of the privilege. (And as with the airlines' race to the bottom, revealed preferences show most people will accept infinitely degraded service rather than pay a fee for something that used to be free.)
Though Paramount Plus gets special mention for forcing a minute long *unskippable* promo ahead of its shows even in the ad free tier.
And technological circumventions exist, though it's an arms race and they don't work with everything. I suspect AI is going to bring a phase where ads try not to *look* like ads to avoid the next generation of adblockers.
Yeah but programming a DVR was a million times easier than programming a VCR, it had much more recording capacity, and eventually came nearly standard with digital cable boxes.
TiVo was a godsend, but ad-skipping goes back at least to VCR time-shifting and the invention of the scan button. (Before that, the screen went black when you fast-forwarded.)
For now many services do offer commercial free tiers, though they keep boosting the cost of the privilege. (And as with the airlines' race to the bottom, revealed preferences show most people will accept infinitely degraded service rather than pay a fee for something that used to be free.)
Though Paramount Plus gets special mention for forcing a minute long *unskippable* promo ahead of its shows even in the ad free tier.
And technological circumventions exist, though it's an arms race and they don't work with everything. I suspect AI is going to bring a phase where ads try not to *look* like ads to avoid the next generation of adblockers.
Yeah but programming a DVR was a million times easier than programming a VCR, it had much more recording capacity, and eventually came nearly standard with digital cable boxes.