PVR Wire

A thoughtful piece in today's New York Times is about the future of television and who pays for it. The article's impetus is the recent patent application filed by Philips Electronics that would prevent fast-forwarding through commercials -- unless you paid a fee to the broadcaster. (Philips says it has no plans to use the technology in its products.) The primary focus is on TiVo (as you can see from the NYT illustration, above) and other PVRs.

Written by Silicon Valley historian and author Randall Stross, the article discusses a technology I had not heard of before: M.H.P., or multimedia home standard. The TV industry could use M.H.P. to insert broadcast flags in programming to essentially turn off the remote control during commericals. For sure, the TV manufacturers would need to cooperate in this ridiculous scheme. Why would they, since their customers are the consumers and not the broadcasters? But who knows what Congress could force them to do, given enough momentum and lobbying monies.

The article also suggests that 1984's Supreme Court decision Sony Corporation v. Universal City Studios Inc. over the "fair use" of making home recordings on VCRs could have been decided differently in today's climate of downloadable iTunes TV programming and TiVo's 30-second commercial skipping hack. Back then, there was little fear that VCRs, which most people could barely operate, had much commercial impact on broadcasters. But TiVo makes it much, much easier to zip through ads -- and that's something that eventually could fuel a revolt by broadcasters. The day they turn off my remote control is the day that I learn how to program so I can hack those broadcast flags.