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Apple device may replace TV ads with iTunes music

What if your TV automatically kicked in with your favourite music video during the ad breaks?

Don’t want to watch TV ads anymore? What if your TV played your favourite music video during the ad breaks? And what if it was smart enough to do it automatically?

In the US Apple has received a patent for technology that would allow users to switch seamlessly between audio or video files once ads started playing on their TV or radio.

A users iTunes library would kick in and play music, video or a podcast via the device.

According to the patent approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office here’s how it works: “When an electronic device determines that an upcoming media item in a media broadcast is not of interest to a user, the electronic device can switch playback from the media stream to a media item from the electronic device local library.”

CBS, FOX and NBC already have lawsuits against Dish Network for their Auto Hop feature that allows users to bypass ads, claiming it is illegal and reduces the advertising revenue the networks depend on to purchase programming.

Given that TiVo abandoned ad-skipping when it was introduced in Australia I don’t fancy the chances of this ever seeing the light of day on any authorised level here. The legal fight between Nine and ICE TV also was driven by the capacity for people to create their own programming, potentially undermining revenue.

Networks are already battling diminished revenue, increased competition from IPTV and soon there will be demands for more local content to be produced.

We will always come back to content and storytelling. But how it is delivered, and the real estate around it, is under threat.

The challenge for all is remain creative.

Source: The Wrap

11 Responses

  1. @dshan – I’m with you there, with my LG PVR I can edit out ads, which I do often and even if I watch something ‘live’ I’m usually at my computer at the same time so during the ads I’m be doing something else.

  2. I haven’t watched TV ads for years now. I record almost every show I’m interested in and cut out the ads on my computer before watching them by streaming them to my TV. It’s heaven! And saves hours of wasted time watching mind-numbing crap on the box.

    Half hour shows become 20 minutes long, hour shows are often barely 40 mins without the ads, and those dreadful near three hour movies on the commercial networks are magically cut down to two hours or less. A few minutes editing time saves hours of wasted watching time.

    The downside is that I no longer know what the best way to whiten my whites is, nor do I have a clue about what reality show is “coming soon” on Nine or Seven or TEN, and I never hear what gripping new interview with a non-entity is soon to air on ACA. Funnily enough, I can live with that…

  3. @TM, they cannot do that as the affiliates (Southern Cross, WIN, Prime etc.) need to insert their own (local) advertising.

    But in all seriousness, why do I hear a Mormon Choir singing “Dumb, dumb, dumb” in the background while reading this article. What the hell do people expect for free!?!? Without advertising, the good shows we have on now (and they are few and far between) simply will become unviable.

    And why are we all so lazy that we cannot channel surf ourselves, or get up off the lounge and make a cuppa, or (as we are all now mult-tasking apparently) check emails etc?

  4. I work for Dish and found out from a co-worker of mine that Apple may have a way of by-passing ads too. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out with some new innovations from other companies. I hear that instead of skipping over the ads, this new innovation from Apple just accesses your iTunes instead of the commercials. Personally I prefer Primetime Anytime with Auto Hop from Dish because I like to save time and use the option to skip over commercials. If I want to use my iTunes, that’s something I’d do if I wasn’t watching TV.

  5. Next thing you know they will try blocking the FF button on your PVR, or switching channels mid program. It will be interesting if the worlds most valuable company (Apple) actually puts this into production. There have been rumors of an Apple TV for some time now.

  6. Surely you can get around it by encoding the entire timeslot blocks as one chunk – with program and ads in the one block – so that the device would not be able to detect any ad breaks? I confess I’m no techie though and know nothing about how this stuff actually works.

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