Chairman of NBC no fan of auto hop
- Thread starter CK SatGuy
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So you are telling me that I am slow all the while you are telling me that you see the same thing that I see. It is impossible to press the skip fwd button so fast that you won't see a single commercial unless you miss part of the actual show. Thank you for further proving my point.
Hell you can argue and tell me I'm slow all you want, I'm just telling it how it is, and that is how the big CPs think. They think that commercials at least have a small chance of being watched when normal DVR functions are used, as opposed to Auto Hop making it incredibly simple to skip all of the commercials with little effort.
Again, not saying it's right, just saying, Dish opened up a can of worms with this feature. There's no denying that.
I'm sure I'm missing something, but can someone please explain to me why the networks are supposedly so upset over this feature?? My wife would never sit through a 2 hour American Idol episode live, but she will watch a recorded one. What's the difference to the broadcasters how you skip through the commercials?? Whether or not you're a "Nielsen family", you are still watching the program....
I DO push a button to get rid of the ads. It is now just one button to say Yes I want to skip the commercials for this show. Instead of pressing the Skip button 3 or 4 times per break.
When a program goes to break you can tell most of the time... I pick up the remote and hit the 30 sec bump several times and usually I'm pretty dead on. I don't see the commercials and if I do happen to view part of one I can bet you I'm not paying one bit of attention to it.
K9SAT said:
But we do pay even if people think we shouldn't have to. You guys can worry all you want about the doom and gloom that might come in the future. I'm just going to enjoy auto hop and continue skipping commercials like I always have.
there's enough people out there who will just leave the remote alone and not skip any commercials in a show on DVR playback. That's money for the broadcasters. With autohop, you just need 1 click to skip everything. That convenience makes it more likely that viewers will skip everything.
Who's going to pay for that lost income for the broadcasters since they depend on advertising? and what happens when every cable/satellite provider offers the same feature?
It's something that Dish and the broadcasters will likely have to work out in some way.
Not surprised that the studio execs would not be thrilled at yet another method/device that allows the skipping of commercials.
Having worked in a professional broadcasting environment for a number of years, maybe I can give some educated guesses as to how Auto Hop works. One of the SMPTE requirements for broadcasting ( at least when I was in the field ) was to have three seconds of 7 IRE black, not including fade out / fade in, between the program segments and any material rolled into that programming. Of course this is a loose requirement and not all Master Control Techs follow it to the letter. It would be quite easy for a routine to be written to look for these three seconds of 7 IRE black and skip to the next black. This is probably the most likely method probably being used in conjunction with the cut-lists that are used by the network affiliates when they add their commercial blocks / promo packs. Another method is for Dish to actually use a timecode generator or existing timecode, if present and available, and manually build a TC skip list after the program has been broadcast. Yet another method for live broadcasts is to just look for breaks in the TC and have a routine that " picks up " where the TC left off. The commercial packs are most certainly going to have a different timecode than the main programming since an A-B Roll ( switching, either manually or via routing signal, between two source devices ) is done to switch between commercial and program. Device A would be placed in Standby while Device B rolled the commercial block. At that point, either a third device could be ready for the next commercial break or Device B could be prepared for another commercial pack.
Tons of ways Dish has to implement this feature.
Having worked in a professional broadcasting environment for a number of years, maybe I can give some educated guesses as to how Auto Hop works. One of the SMPTE requirements for broadcasting ( at least when I was in the field ) was to have three seconds of 7 IRE black, not including fade out / fade in, between the program segments and any material rolled into that programming. Of course this is a loose requirement and not all Master Control Techs follow it to the letter. It would be quite easy for a routine to be written to look for these three seconds of 7 IRE black and skip to the next black. This is probably the most likely method probably being used in conjunction with the cut-lists that are used by the network affiliates when they add their commercial blocks / promo packs. Another method is for Dish to actually use a timecode generator or existing timecode, if present and available, and manually build a TC skip list after the program has been broadcast. Yet another method for live broadcasts is to just look for breaks in the TC and have a routine that " picks up " where the TC left off. The commercial packs are most certainly going to have a different timecode than the main programming since an A-B Roll ( switching, either manually or via routing signal, between two source devices ) is done to switch between commercial and program. Device A would be placed in Standby while Device B rolled the commercial block. At that point, either a third device could be ready for the next commercial break or Device B could be prepared for another commercial pack.
Tons of ways Dish has to implement this feature.
That's the part I don't understand. If I watch a recorded program but skip the commercials (either manually or AutoHop), is the network going to receive less income because I skipped the commercials?? I could understand if Dish implemented something that made it difficult for me to watch the program at all, but in the end I am still watching it...
Only indirectly. If a commercial airs on a network and it does poorly in generating sales for the advertiser (because it's not being watched enough), that advertiser might be less apt to spend the money airing ads on that particular network, driving down ad revenue due to less demand for ad space on that network.
once you start skipping, I would guess there's not a huge difference. Even with normal skipping, i catch some commercials occasionally which might count to some small degree. With AutoHop, i'm getting close to zero.
Considering that DVR usage is growing for all TV providers, and Dish is not the largest provider out there, the measurement of affected sales would definitely be very indirect. Kinda seems like the NRA legal strategy; fight any attempt to deny or restrict usage, no matter how insignificant it may seem...
The difference being someone watching the 2hr series finale of House this time next week skips every commercial in the program with a single button press. BIG difference from traditional DVR usage.
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Yes, they will lose income when advertisers decide to stop paying for ads that no one will see.
The whole idea behind programming, is to sell the advertising around a show. That is more important. That's why networks "try" to provide programs that people will watch. Then they can charge more for advertising on that show.
That's why you see more "reality" shows. Cheap to produce and LOTS of people watch them. That means more $$$ for the network.
I hear that, but whether I skip the commercials with one button press or manually skip 30 seconds a shot, I'm still skipping the commercials. I still think the advent and increased usage of the time shifting technology in the first place has a bigger affect on whether or not we are viewing commercials than an "automated" function to do so implemented by one provider...
The key for the networks is to produce programming that is so compelling that people will want to watch live, or feel left out of the experience. They need the shows that everyone will be talking about the next day at work. Filling the schedule with tons of clones where you can predict the ending and jokes in advance leads to TV that can be given to the DVR and skipped through as needed.
We are already paying the broadcasters directly for the programming they provide. I feel they through the you have to watch our advertisements argument out when they started making us pay them to see our locals by black mailing service providers and using the all digital conversion to decrease the power of their transmitters to level where fewer people can receive OTA. If they want to make us watch commercials then quit charging providers right to carry fees.
