MoneyWatch is reporting on a new deal by Cox Cable with Disney to disable the fast-forward buttons in content it provides for on-demand viewers. (Found originally on Slashdot.)
One of the joys of cable on-demand programming and having a digital video recorder (DVR) is the ability to skip commercials by fast-forwarding through them (or not seeing them at all). If Cox insists on adding commercials to the on-demand experience they are in essence killing one of the reasons people turn to on-demand viewing in the first place.
While you would still have the convenience of watching whenever you wanted, you would still be subjected to commercials for your trouble. Frankly, I would rather pay a small fee to watch the program without commercials and my guess is if Cox is setting a precedent with this deal, we may be witnessing the beginning of the end of on-demand viewing for anything other than fee-based movies.
Do you know if this agreement also included Disney Channel to be "Unrecordable?" That's the message I got tonight when I tried to set my Cox DVR to record a Halloween movie on Disney Channel--a message saying "This channel is Unrecordable." I tried to record a movie two nights ago, thought it was set,. but when I went to play it yesterday, saw there was only a red "recording error" message, no movie. If Disney is really making itself unrecordable, my kids viewing of Disney Channel programs will be very slim.
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