The commercial and pay TV networks have banned an LG ad that sells a new TV that can skip ads. It’s basically the same time shifting technology that any DVD recorder with a hard drive has. They’ve had to recut it so the ad focuses on a different message. I can understand the commercial free to air channels and their dinosaurus ostrich head in the sand ways but pay tv already is selling something that lets you skip the ads when you replay, their Foxtel IQ settop box makes it dead easy to program shows to record (it’s like a Tivo, it gives you a schedule for the next week or so, you just have to select them with your remote). Of course, when you replay them, you can fast forward the ads. In fact, it’s the same as VHS video, if you prerecord something, why would you hang around watching the ads? It’s not saying you can just fast forward the ads if you watch it as it’s broadcasting. So we all know everyone does it, you’re just not allowed to say it. So weird.

Networks balk at ad for ad-skipping TV - SMH

The ad that you will see tomorrow night for a plasma TV with a built-in digital recorder will be very different from the one electronics firm LG had in mind. The original ad featured a line that would have had universal appeal to TV viewers: “When you replay, you can skip the ads.” But after the commercial and pay TV networks refused to run it LG recut it to include the considerably less catchy line: “And when you replay, you can skip straight back to the action.”

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