I shuddered when I read this. Honestly. After being spoiled by past PVRs as well as my current Tivo, commercial skipping is a necessity nowadays. We almost never watch anything live, or at least delay it until the point where “ok, we can start watching now; it’s late enough so we can skip all the commercials”. 
You may recall I wrote earlier about Philips and their ad-skipping technology. Well, Cox Communications has signed a deal with ESPN and ABC for a video-on-demand (VOD) service. Part of the deal, though, involved making sure people couldn’t skip ads … and while this only affects VOD for now … and it’s only a test … it’s quite possibly a sign of things to come.
The goal with the new program is to increase ad revenue, which broadcasters have been crying foul over since the dawn of PVRs like TiVo. ABC, ESPN and parent company Walt Disney Co. handed Cox the rules to abide by if Cox wanted to have access to hit programs. But Cox isn’t showing any concern, and in fact welcomes the restriction.
Reports say that Cox and Disney are still ironing out the details on what kind of ads will play, for how long and how often during a program. None of the above companies mentioned whether or not users will still be able to switch channels when a commercial pops up. Source: DailyTech
Yes, yes, same “feature” possibly as the Philips tech … no channel changing during ads. Although that’s still a rumor, right. Hang on to your old PVRs, people, the newer, better ones might just tick you off in the future, if this becomes de rigeur.
May 20, 2007 at 1:26 pm
So far in San Diego Cox has provided very good video and high-speed cable & phone.
They are not cheap, but, come through with great service.