I’ve been working pretty hard lately so I was really looking forward to an evening off in front of the tv.  The PVR needs serious cleaning off because it’s getting too full.  I thought I’d start with Lost.  I have a lot of questions about Lost, the big one being is anyone really into this season?

But of course how could you be when the recording cuts out before the end?!  Who does that and why?  Is it the broadcasters trying to get you to watch live, so they run the show past the hour and your recording ends up cut off!  Why would you do that to a loyal fan struggling to enjoy the final season?

But hey, I didn’t get too upset.  Instead I switched over to On Demand where I figured I could catch the precious last few seconds of the episode.  You know I hate On Demand.  The worst interface ever.  But I sat through slow menu after slow menu, found my episode and had a little nap while it loaded.  Then I hit fast forward to get me to the spot where the PVR had cut out.

Guess what!  Fast forward didn’t work.  A little notice came on the screen along with a male voice over announcing that the controls are turned off for this episode. WTF?!  I can’t fast forward to where I left off?  I have to sit through the whole thing?  Plus ads?  I don’t think so.

Just for interest sake, I checked a bunch of other shows — some on CTV On Demand, some on Global — and several have this same thing: you can’t use the remote to fast forward, rewind or pause.

This is new, right?  I’ve never encountered it before.  Someone has decided to force us to watch commercials.  Who?  On Demand is Rogers, no?  Are they sharing this ad revenue with the broadcasters?  Hard to say, but given the whole CRTC kerfuffle about fee for carriage, I’m having trouble seeing these opposing teams working together against us the audience.  They prefer the solo approach to screwing us.

Next I tried to watch my recorded episode of Amazing Race, but most of what was recorded was 60 Minutes.  By now, my blood pressure is seriously up.  So I grab a computer to watch online on CBS.  There are the episodes but they too have disabled the controls, so you can’t fast forward, back up or pause and yes, you are forced to sit through commercial breaks.

Hasn’t everyone in the TV industry heard?  Consumers want their content when, where and how they want it.  Taking control out of their hands is no way to ensure the future of the business.  Pissing the audience off is no way to deal with falling viewership. And trying to force people to watch ads is not going to get them to buy the products, it’s going to make them HATE the brands.

These are the strategies of desperate companies.  They will only alienate your viewers and drive the demise of the copyright laws you so desperately cling too.

Wake up!

Start thinking creatively about your business.  The model doesn’t work anymore.  Let it go and come up with a new one.  Because I’m not hanging out for much more of this.

I’ve been seriously considering canceling my whole cable package.  You can grab a fair amount of HD out of the air with an antenna and the quality is better than what they serve up through the coax.  Between iTunes, eyeTV, DVDs and various work arounds you can get pretty much everything you want to see without shoveling your entire life savings into the cable provider’s bank account every month.  I’m fed up with paying that much money to get abused by a company that has so little respect for its clientele.