TV networks claim skipping commercials is illegal (M)

[DBroncos4life]

Fox, NBC, and CBS are incredibly miffed at Dish Network for providing a digital video recorder with an "Auto Hop" commercial-skipping feature....

http://now.msn.com/entertainment/052...s-illegal.aspx

[DBroncos4life]

Fox, NBC, and CBS are incredibly miffed at Dish Network for providing a digital video recorder with an "Auto Hop" commercial-skipping feature....

http://now.msn.com/entertainment/052...s-illegal.aspx

[Man-Goblin]

How bout this. It should be illegal to go to a commercial after a touchdown and again after the ensuing kickoff. And it should be illegal not to go to a commercial during a replay review.

[DBroncos4life]

Originally Posted by Man-Goblin

How bout this. It should be illegal to go to a commercial after a touchdown and again after the ensuing kickoff. And it should be illegal not to go to a commercial during a replay review.

This ^

[Blueflame]

As if people don't get pretty good at (manually) skipping commercials with the DVR anyway. So... if it's illegal to skip commercials, it would be logical to conclude that it's also illegal to take a bathroom break during one. Good luck to them in enforcing that.

[cousinal11]

Who gets Dish Network these days?

[Blueflame]

Originally Posted by cousinal11

Who gets Dish Network these days?

We dumped Dish for Directv a long time ago... because of Dish Network's terrible (lack of) customer service.

[chadta]

dish network isnt even worth stealing, and by stealing i mean if they beam the signal onto my house i have every right to use it, since i didnt ask them to beam it at me in the first place.

[Broncobiv]

I've got Dish, never had a problem with their customer service. Always had someone come out and replace our box for free when it got messed up.

[Bronco Yoda]

I recently thought about changing to dish network. I hate dealing with direct tv. Recently one of my DVR (about 3 yrs old) quit working (audio went out). Considering I spend around $140 a month on tv alone and have constant customer for 7 years... I thought there would be no problem getting my equipment replaced.

The last time one of my DVR's (Tivo) broke I was informed that the equipment was mine. That I had purchased it with my long standing loyalty. So there were fees involved and a new contract to get replacement equipment. How nice for me... It was during football season and I didn't want the hassle so I choked it down.

This time directTV story was that the policy changed again and now you don't RENT the equipment. Funny but I'm still charged a monthly equipment fee.... But it's really now a licensing fee for your equipment to receive their signal. How very sneaky of them.

LMFAO..... really?

I did finally get it resolved after a half dozen calls over a 10 day period. First they wanted $200 for equipment charge plus shipping plus $45 for the tech to come out and confirm that all is well.... BULL****!!!!!

Then it was $45 dollars to come out and check everything out (even though i had already called three times to go through every possible check).... then half off for a replacement receiver.

Then a couple days later it was negotiated down to a $45 dollar service call and equipment free if it really needed replacement....but.... $20 for S/H.

Then a day later I finally convinced them (reading over the previous calling notes that every possible test had been don!e) so they quit insisting on a worthless service call but still wanted their $20 of flesh.

... So i said fine. That's when they hit me with (right before the order was complete) that i'd have to also renew my contract. Of course not with the awesome new customer discounts. I said F U!

They called back 10 min. later and finally sent me out a replacement receiver for free. Though I have a feeling that it was old stock looking at the size and such of the equipment. But it works.

[maher_tyler]

Originally Posted by Man-Goblin

How bout this. It should be illegal to go to a commercial after a touchdown and again after the ensuing kickoff. And it should be illegal not to go to a commercial during a replay review.

That's one thing Hockey has over every other sport...they only go to commercial about 5 times per period and commercial free in OT

[maher_tyler]

Originally Posted by Bronco Yoda

I recently thought about changing to dish network. I hate dealing with direct tv. Recently one of my DVR (about 3 yrs old) quit working (audio went out). Considering I spend around $140 a month on tv alone and have constant customer for 7 years... I thought there would be no problem getting my equipment replaced.

The last time one of my DVR's (Tivo) broke I was informed that the equipment was mine. That I had purchased it with my long standing loyalty. So there were fees involved and a new contract to get replacement equipment. How nice for me... It was during football season and I didn't want the hassle so I choked it down.

This time directTV story was that the policy changed again and now you don't RENT the equipment. Funny but I'm still charged a monthly equipment fee.... But it's really now a licensing fee for your equipment to receive their signal. How very sneaky of them.

LMFAO..... really?

I did finally get it resolved after a half dozen calls over a 10 day period. First they wanted $200 for equipment charge plus shipping plus $45 for the tech to come out and confirm that all is well.... BULL****!!!!!

Then it was $45 dollars to come out and check everything out (even though i had already called three times to go through every possible check).... then half off for a replacement receiver.

Then a couple days later it was negotiated down to a $45 dollar service call and equipment free if it really needed replacement....but.... $20 for S/H.

Then a day later I finally convinced them (reading over the previous calling notes that every possible test had been don!e) so they quit insisting on a worthless service call but still wanted their $20 of flesh.

... So i said fine. That's when they hit me with (right before the order was complete) that i'd have to also renew my contract. Of course not with the awesome new customer discounts. I said F U!

They called back 10 min. later and finally sent me out a replacement receiver for free. Though I have a feeling that it was old stock looking at the size and such of the equipment. But it works.

Weird..I've never had any issues with DTV

[Blueflame]

Originally Posted by Broncobiv

I've got Dish, never had a problem with their customer service. Always had someone come out and replace our box for free when it got messed up.

It shouldn't require 3 phone calls... in 3 consecutive months... to update information for an automatic payment. If you call once and the person on the other end of the line says your info has been updated, then it should actually be updated and you shouldn't have to call them again the next month to give them the exact same information a second...and then a third... time. Why would one set up automatic payments if you want to have to call them every month? You set up auto payments and expect it to be taken care of so you don't have to bother with writing a check or making a call every month.

[El Jué]

"Your honor, our antique business model is based on audience behavior that has changed forever. We had a great run for a few decades and you might be able to squeeze one more out for us. We're asking – no, begging – you to subsidize our corporations through the power and price of the legal system."

[sirhcyennek81]

My biggest problem with football games on TV is the commercials... which oddly enough only bothers me when Denver is losing. But even then...TD, commercial. Kickoff, commercial. 3 and out, commercial. Punt, 3 more plays, commercial.

And its always the same 4 ****ing commercials.

...

[BroncoMan4ever]

Originally Posted by Man-Goblin

How bout this. It should be illegal to go to a commercial after a touchdown and again after the ensuing kickoff. And it should be illegal not to go to a commercial during a replay review.

how about not making me have to sit through 14 minutes of commercials during a half hour long program, when that doesn't happen anymore, I'll quit skipping the mindless minutia that is commercials.

[tsiguy96]

Originally Posted by El Jué

"Your honor, our antique business model is based on audience behavior that has changed forever. We had a great run for a few decades and you might be able to squeeze one more out for us. We're asking – no, begging – you to subsidize our corporations through the power and price of the legal system."

sounds like the RIAA

[El Jué]

Originally Posted by tsiguy96

sounds like the RIAA

Exactly like them. And the Las Vegas Review Journal/Righthaven et al.

Dinosaurs in their death throes.

[ZONA]

As if we don't have advertising slammed down our throats every frickin where we turn. It's on TV, on all the websites we visit, on our phone apps, on the radio we listen too. On billboards we drive by. Everywhere.

[El Jué]

Originally Posted by ZONA

As if we don't have advertising slammed down our throats every frickin where we turn. It's on TV, on all the websites we visit, on our phone apps, on the radio we listen too. On billboards we drive by. Everywhere.

The jig is almost up. No one can pay attention to all the messages that are attempting to interrupt and divert us. The traditional agency model and interruption marketing are dying. They're discovering that we're on information overload and they can't annoy us into wanting to use their products. You can't make out a single voice in a room full of people shouting at you.

Patience.

[Jetmeck]

Originally Posted by Blueflame

We dumped Dish for Directv a long time ago... because of Dish Network's terrible (lack of) customer service.

Funny.....had Dish for 10 years. Signal loss could be counted on both hands. As far as the DVR usage we pay extra for that now due to TIVO so I believe if I want to skip your stupid ad I sure will. One push of the button skips one commercial......love it.

BTW...have compared Direct's equipment many times and it doesn't even start to compare to Dish...............

[Jetmeck]

Originally Posted by tsiguy96

sounds like the RIAA

or the MPAA.........

[MagicHef]

Originally Posted by El Jué

The jig is almost up. No one can pay attention to all the messages that are attempting to interrupt and divert us. The traditional agency model and interruption marketing are dying. They're discovering that we're on information overload and they can't annoy us into wanting to use their products. You can't make out a single voice in a room full of people shouting at you.

Patience.

Yeah, but I'm already annoyed at characters in a show randomly praising some aspect of their new car when it has nothing to do with the story. I'm looking at you, Modern Family.

[Blueflame]

Originally Posted by Jetmeck

Funny.....had Dish for 10 years. Signal loss could be counted on both hands. As far as the DVR usage we pay extra for that now due to TIVO so I believe if I want to skip your stupid ad I sure will. One push of the button skips one commercial......love it.

BTW...have compared Direct's equipment many times and it doesn't even start to compare to Dish...............

We never looked back after moving from Dish Network to Directv. Perhaps Dish's customer service is better now, but by the third time that they were asked to; said they did; but actually failed to... update our account to facilitate our automatic payment, I'd lost patience with them. It's not "that" difficult to update an account correctly the first time (or at least the second).

As for the "mandated commercial viewing"... I can see that networks might be able to withhold their programming from Dish if they provide a machine that will easily skip commercials... but once the remote is in the hands of the viewer, at least some percentage of the advertising is going to be skipped and there's nothing they will be able to do to change that.

[ColoradoDarin]

Switched from DirecTV to antenna in Feb - haven't missed it at all. Plenty of web-type-sites out there that show the football games so I'm good (had DTV last season, but dropped ST anyways, didn't miss that since Bronco games were on a lot here)