Thank you Philips! May I have another!

[by Todd] How would you feel if someone locked your television so that you couldn't change channels during commercials? How about if they insist you pay a fee, at the start of every show, to regain control?

Yeah, me too. Nonetheless that's exactly what Royal Philips Electronics now has a patent to do.

Amazing but true. The same company that sells TiVo units hand over fist has created a process to neuter the appeal of DVRs. According to their patent application here's what the new system can do:

• Prevents a viewer of a direct (nonrecorded) broadcast from switching channels when an advertisement is displayed and
• prevents a viewer of a recorded program from fast-forwarding the recorded program in order to skip past advertisements that were recorded with the program.
• A viewer may either watch the advertisements or pay a fee in order to be able to change channels or fast-forward when the advertisements are being displayed.

Sensing that consumers may not be all that thrilled with this development, Philips tried to spin the announcement as a win for consumers.

"We developed a system where the viewer can choose, at the beginning of a movie, to either watch the movie without ads, or watch the movie with ads," the company stated. "It is up to the viewer to take this decision, and up to the broadcaster to offer the various services."

Oh, that's different. By all means, I would love to pay someone for a feature that I already own today.

Interestingly enough, Philips wasn't touting the consumer benefits in the patent application. Indeed, the application says consumers skipping commercials is a serious problem for broadcasters.

"This is undesirable for program broadcasters because the advertisements that are broadcast with the programs pay for the programs. The program broadcasters therefore have an interest in seeing that the advertisements are viewed and not ignored."

Presumably each device comes with a head restraint that prevents you from shifting your gaze away from the television as well. Should you wish to share your thoughts with Philips I believe you can find an email address here. That is NOT undesirable.

(Via MIT Advertising Lab)