That's the way you'll take away my fast forward on my DVR. This guy seems to be in denial over the loss of his business model:

"I'm not so sure that the whole issue really is one of commercial avoidance," Shaw said. "It really is a matter of convenience--so you don't miss your favorite show. And quite frankly, we're just training a new generation of viewers to skip commercials because they can. I'm not sure that the driving reason to get a DVR in the first place is just to skip commercials. I don't fundamentally believe that. People can understand in order to have convenience and on-demand (options), that you can't skip commercials."

No, of course not. No one wants a DVR to be able to skip commercials.

When I had a DVR (and paid out the nose for my cable service), I would still watch commercials if I was watching a show "live". But commercials are a great place to use the FFWD option if you've previously paused the show or are trying to "catch up".

I used to watch a 30 minute program at 8PM on Sunday nights on one channel, then flip over to a different hour long program that also started at 8 PM on a different channel, and, by skipping through commercials, I was usually "caught up" by 9:30 or 9:45.

Now that I don't have a DVR, I don't watch that 30 minute show any longer.

Of course, my sister uses her TiVo like it's going out of style. She hasn't watched a commercial in 3 years.

Further, if I've already seen the first 30 minutes of a show, and I go back to finish it later, I would be quite upset if I had to sit through the first half hour of the show again and couldn't jump to where I had left off.

If they come up with a way to disable the FFWD on DVRs, I would anticipate VCR sales and HTPC sales would probably take off again. Just try and stop me from fast-forwarding my tapes!

Just so long as they don't outlaw going to the fridge during a commercial I'll be fine .

If I were a network exec, I'd be more worried about the number of people who are tuning in, or DVRing, than being worried about that small majority with DVR systems who are zapping.

They charge commercial rates on the ratings collected during the last sweeps week. And more quality shows turning up away from the big 3 are pulling viewers from the big 3 to the cable guys, USA, FX, TNT, etc.

Stopping zappers, even if the FCC will listen which I doubt, isn't the answer. Quality programming to rebuild their ratings is the answer to their declining revenues.

I'm with Cecil, I use the commercial breaks for a trip to the fridge or to the uh, um, governors office.

It's not like when I hit FFWD, the DVR skips 2 minutes and picks up immediately after the commercial break. I still get the subliminal advertisement.

I'll give a hint to commercial makers... DON'T AMPLIFY THE SOUND. When I'm watching a show for relaxation, I'll often miss FFWD through a commercial because I use the time to chat about the show with my wife. However, when the HiFi kicks up a few decibels, I'm like Pavlov's dog looking for the remote.

Until I got my wife TiVo last Christmas, I had gotten into a habit of just not bothering with television. Setting a VCR even with VCR-Plus was too complicated for what entertainment value I ever reasonably expected from TV anyway. And forget about trying to remember to stop something else I was doing to sit down in front of the TV.

Now I have more series set for regular recording than she has. The main value is that I choose when to watch. Sometimes I even forget to FFWD -- until (as Leland notes) some ad comes on that blasts me through the wall behind the couch.

I wish they sold a DVD player in this country which allowed me:
1. to watch my Japanese DVDs
2. to skip the idiocy in front of the show
Right now, for example, I have to import a chipped remote from U.K. if I want any of it.

The skip-lock bit was present in DVDs from the begining, and nobody mustered the rage to demand non-crippled players. Naturally the TV people think they can do exactly the same thing with DVR. Everyone will grumble and then reach to seedy dealers for solutions.

Some DVD's now won't let you fast forward through previews or messages of one sort or another. I believe that on a DVD of early cartoons that had either WWII related racist images (Japanese) or African American racist images (mammy type characters or blackface) there was an unskippable lecture about how we all need to be sensitive and such.

I guess that feature is coded onto the disc itself. Could they put some code into the program when it is broadcast such that you couldn't fast-forward even if they don't remove the fast forward button?

There is nearly nothing worth watching on commercially supported television anyway. Just download the stuff on the Prelinger archives http://www.archive.org/browse.php?field=/metadata/subject&mediatype=movies&collection=prelinger or watch all episodes of Caltech's fantastic "Mechanical Universe" http://www.learner.org/resources/series42.html