This would cut out the annoying hours of commericals on tv. Mabey the next channel could be educational but it would last only as long as the commericals. As soon as your program came back, it would chang ethe channel back automacticly. It would know what other channels weren't showing commericals then. - Vozzella deas, the makers of Cheese-O the soda
-- CV, Apr 01 2003

RCA TV with Commercial skip http://www.bestbuy....1101414&cmp=KA14028
doesn't really explain much about the skip button--but you can see it is listed under "product features" [funkychunky, Oct 04 2004]

ReplayTV with Commercial Advance http://www.replaytv...atures.asp#autoskip
This DVR (I have one) automatically skips over commercials in recorded programs. [krelnik, Oct 04 2004]

Commercials are wringing their way into the actual TV shows that you watch. Where I live, the local soaps are filled with merchandising and product placements.
-- Trodden, Apr 02 2003


With the advent of digital TV, shirley it should be possible for companies to offer a no-commercial option for each channel? Those who would pay for ad-free TV can stump up a monthly fee to compensate for the lost advertising revenue. Poorer, meaner or less impatient people would tolerate the ads in order to have free TV. For REAL consumer choice, you could switch between the two on a pay-per-view basis, but customer satisfaction of that order is bordering on WIBNI territory, I feel.
-- egbert, Apr 02 2003


Good idea CV - but I think unfortunately (or maybe Fortunately!) it is already a bit baked - I actually had a TV that had a button on the remote that allows you to "skip" the channels - I can't remember exactly how this worked - but I think it just estimated the typical time of commercials & when you pressed the button it would kind of start a countdown on a timer & you could flick to another station & when the time ran out it would go back to your original station when supposedly the commercials were over. I will try to find a link.
-- funkychunky, Apr 02 2003


Sometimes I would prefer to watch the ads and skip the programs.
-- sufc, Apr 02 2003


"Who else can pay the tv company to broadcast."

TV license fee-payers, like how the ad-free BBC is funded in the UK.
-- -alx, Apr 02 2003


I think everyone is missing CV's point - he isn't saying GET RID OF COMMERCIALS - he is saying the TV should have a setting so you don't have WATCH the commercials if you don't want to. Check out the link section - this is very similar to the tv I had - and while it's not quite what CV was decribing it is close - it just doesn't know what other channels have commericals on at the time.
-- funkychunky, Apr 02 2003


My TV already has a setting so that I don't have to watch commercials. I think there should be more commericals though, particularly on the BBC.
-- angel, Apr 02 2003


[funkychunky] I don't think the point's been missed, it's just that some of the annos are addressing the implications of the idea. If there's going to be a widely-available way to skip the commercials, the TV programs are going to have to be paid for another way, since there'll be no point in advertisers funding the programs if their adverts aren't going to get watched.

[angel] Is that the big red button? Think mine's got one of those too.
-- -alx, Apr 02 2003


[angel] - the BBC is already stacked full of commercials for its own products and programmes.

My problem with this idea is that the commercials tend to be on at the same time across channels. I've tried avoiding commercials on ITV1, flick to Channel 4 (great, some brain food ... nope, commercials), Channel 5 (porn, heh ... nope, commercials), BBC1 (no, they're advertising some forthcoming programme)... I presume the same works across satellite and cable TV too, because the same principle works on commercial radio across the UK. Does this TV just switch itself off at this point?
-- PeterSilly, Apr 02 2003


Maybe during a commercial the TV could switch to a music channel (Not a music VIDEO channel - I am talking about the channels that play nonstop music with just a solid background to look at & it shows the title of the song & artist, etc.) - but I believe that's only available with Digital Cable. Do they have anything like this in the UK ?
-- funkychunky, Apr 02 2003


The BBC is full of its own commercials. It got its elf into trouble a couple of years ago because it started to advertise its own program related magazines ,ie Top Gear, ToTPs and Radio Times.
-- sufc, Apr 02 2003


[PS]: Yes, I know; it's the commericals (sic) I want to see. And have you noticed how many of their ads are for programming that you cannot see without spending £100 on another box?
-- angel, Apr 02 2003


Darn - I was thinking we were talking about commercials, and all the time we were talking about commericals. "And now, on BBC4 a discussion about the importance of accurate spelling (please buy a box) ..."
-- PeterSilly, Apr 02 2003


[funkychunky] I have a TV that has that feature you describe. The way it works is you press the SKIP button on the remote, and a countdown timer appears in the corner of the screen starting at 0:30. Press it multiple times to add increments of 30 seconds. Now just surf around to your hearts content, and when the timer gets to zero it zaps you back to the original channel.

Another way to go if you don't like commercials is to buy a DVR (Digital Video Recorder), and don't watch live TV anymore. Then you can skip commercials, in some models automatically. (See link).
-- krelnik, Apr 02 2003


-to egbert, What do you mean "free TV"? Besides the over-the-air networks which for the most part have no good programming anyway, I have to PAY for ALL my tv. $82 month to be exact. Subtract $14 for my movie package, and I'm still paying $68 a month for all of those ads that "help pay for the tv shows" Where does my $68 a month go? To good 'ol Cablevision. The cable monopoly in my area. THE SAME CABLEVISION THAT CHARGES ME $4 EXTRA TO WATCH THE F**KING YANKEES! I think for those of us who throw away good money on bad programming, we should have the choice of skipping the commercials if we want.
-- TaZMaNiaK, Jun 30 2003


$68 a month? Wow. I pay about $12.
-- bristolz, Jun 30 2003


I love a great commerical, tens times better than a lot of the other crap. Talking about product placement, top honors goes to the Gustavo family of Venezuela, one of the wealthiest on Earth. They own huge tracts of land, even sold some to Nelson Rockefeller, and have, or have had, ranches, farms, and timber stands to go along with canning factories, supermarkets, furniture factories and Coca Cola bottling plants among other things. They also have their own production studio, where they produce soap operas to air on their televison station. The clothes and furniture and who knows what else on the sets were provided by the company. The Gustavo's have been dealt some criticism lately, they seem to have topped of at 2 billion, tongues are wagging, saying they should be worth much more than that.
-- ty6, Jun 30 2003


But whenever I switch channels, I find ads on almost every other channel (except few news channels). I think the timings of commercial break on various channels are intentionally coincident & the channels are smarter than viewers.
-- vedarshi, Feb 18 2007



random, halfbakery