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Implications of Fast Forward Ads

Shelly Palmer, Chairman of the New York Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Advanced Media committe, has several thought experiments (via unmediated) up on his blog:

You're watching your favorite show on your PVR equipped television set.  You press the pause button and a series of commercials start playing ... who should get the money?

This discussion stems from TiVo displaying ads during fast forward, which as I understand it will only display ads from the company whose ad is being fast forwarded through.

The continuation of this line of thought is the possibility of a company putting their ads over their competitor's fast forwarded ads, which is troubling due to evidence showing PVR users who fast forward through ads have higher ad recall rates.  From Shelly Palmer again:

You are probably thinking that all of these scenarios are impossible and, even if they aren't, they're illegal.  Wrong on both counts.  This is totally possible, it will start happening everywhere very, very soon and the copyright laws are a bit murky since this technology was not contemplated when they were penned.

What this means is that if it starts happening, we could see more anti-PVR legislation coming down the pipeline.

by George Hotelling December 5, 2004 in Op-Ed

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