ABC wants to force commercials on you

I read a post by Marc Andreessen last week about ABC's plan to develop their own on demand video service, and I still can't stop shaking my head at their plans. I'll pull in the lines from the post written by television industry journalist, Bill Carter, that pretty much sums up ABC's views:

Looking to strike a blow against the proliferation of digital video recorders, the ABC network, its affiliated broadcast stations, and Cox Communications’ cable systems are establishing an on-demand video service that would allow viewers to watch ABC shows like “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” any time they choose.

The catch: It uses a new technology that disables the viewers’ ability to fast-forward through commercials...

Several executives involved in the project, which ABC plans to offer to other cable systems around the country, said the move was an overt attempt to staunch the use of DVRs like TiVo, which viewers often use to avoid commercials. That activity is increasingly seen as threat to broadcast television, which depends on ad revenue to pay for programs.

“This does counter the DVR,” said Anne Sweeney, the president of the Disney-ABC television group. “You don’t need TiVo if you have fast-forward-disabled video on demand..."

Ray Cole, president of Citadel Communications, which owns three local ABC stations, who is also the chairman of the board of affiliated ABC stations, was even more direct about the goal of the new service.

“As network and affiliates, we both have an interest in slowing down the explosive growth of DVRs,” Mr. Cole said. “This is about combating DVRs. As we developed this at every stage, there was an agreement that however we put this together, disabling the fast-forward function was key.”

Now my rant - how can ABC attempt to develop a product that goes against what consumers want. Do they think we will just throw out our DVR and welcome their box into our homes? Have they not learned from the music industry and the approach old media has taken to digital music? Prior to this post, I actually thought that ABC may be getting "it" with their online approach to TV. I really like their online offering at ABC.Go.com. Full episodes of shows with very limited commercials. I think their approach gives a nice balance of limited commercials with a viewer friendly interface that allows full episode viewing (some even in HD quality) of recent shows.

If ABC plans to use their online type of mandatory commercials for their set top box, then they need to pitch it VERY differently! Don't tell the world your goal is to MAKE your viewers watch your commercials. Pitch it as a balance of customer wanted On Demand shows with very limited commercials and then quote some findings from the ABC online 'experiments' about customer satisfaction.

And later that week I read a post from Silicon Alley Insider about NBC's study of DVR usage which gave a view of how NBC seems to be taking an "if you can't beat them join them" approach to DVRs. NBC has found that some skipped ads still have value. It looks like NBC may be the ones to learn how to work with consumer behavior instead of fighting it.

If ABC doesn't want to run their own research they can just buy it from TiVo. During the TiVo quarterly analyst call last week, CEO Tom Rogers (no relation) noted that,

We are the only player out there providing (advertisers) with new forms of inventory as well as research on how people are avoiding commercials.

ABC should buy this research, learn what consumers are doing, and then figure out how to work WITH the behavior not try to beat their viewers into going back to old behaviors.

It's been years since TiVo first released their commercial skipping box, and I keep waiting a commercial intended to be skipped! I envision a commercial that when fast forwarded takes on a completely different visual -- that commercial will not only be skipped it will be replayed over and over! And posted on the web in fast forward. I haven't seen one yet -- but then I skip commercials.

Hey, Old Media!!! Start innovating!


Disclosures: I've been a TiVo user since early 2001. I have one TiVo Series 2 hooked up with a Lifetime subscription in the master bedroom, one TiVo Series 1 in the closet, one TiVo Series 2 in the guest room without a subscription, 1 Comcast HD DVR in the living room, and we've given 3 TiVo boxes as gifts.