PVR's are great! Record, playback, rewind, fast-forward through all of you favorite television shows. Unfortunately, and with obvious reason, advertisers and networks don't particularly like it when we, the humble viewer, skip the same commercial we've seen a thousand times before. That's advertising revenue their loosing by not being able to coax people into buying their products.

It was only a matter of time, but someone can come up with a system that will prevent viewers from zipping through commercials. Cox Communications has inked a deal with the likes of ABC and ESPN to offer a video on demand service. Subscribers can order television shows such as Desperate Housewives (never seen it) and Grey's Anatomy (never seen it) for instant, on demand viewing. There will also be some select sporting events added to the on demand line up. Unfortunately, and my heart goes out to the viewers, the fast-foreword feature in their PVR will be disabled during on demand broadcasts.

Broadcasters have been crying foul ever since the dawn of Tivo, crying over lost revenue from skipped ads. In this case, ABC, ESPN, and their parent company Walt Disney, stipulated certain rules for Cox Communications if they were to start this video on demand service, and some form of anti-fast fore-warding technology was probably at the top of the list. It seems Cox is only too happy to abide by these network wishes, seemingly so when they said "We are excited about collaborating with Disney and using their great ABC and ESPN content to provide our customers with 'anywhere, anytime' access to content they value," said Cox president Pat Esser. It was also added "This project is another example of how our digital strategy integrates into our overall business strategy," said Disney co-chair Anne Sweeney. "It provides consumers with more access to our hit programming while showcasing our continued dedication to working with our distribution and advertising partners to develop and grow viable multiplatform business opportunities."

There's still a few details to hammer out, such as how long a commercial will run before viewers can skip it, and whether or not viewers can change the channel when a commercial pops up. Phillips Electronics had some time ago developed a simple embedded technology that would prevent viewers from skipping commercials all together. Needless to say, people got pretty ticked off. So, with the wisdom that only a multi-billion dollar corporation could have, Phillips released a statement saying that users could turn the anti-skip feature off all together if they so wanted. The old adage of beating a dead horse comes to mind for that one.

There has to be a better solution to all of this. Tivo, the PVR pioneer, has actually launched their own television commercial advertising division in the hopes of determining what ads are being watched, which are being skipped, and why. Google is launching their TV ad service that will allow advertisers to better target the viewing audience with more local ads. It may even help advertising companies make better ads. Microsoft is pushing their own solution, where ad content would be stored locally on a viewers PVR rather than broadcast through the air waves of cable system. Again, in the hopes of better developing and tracking target audiences.

Or perhaps the simplest solution of all, something I've been doing for a couple years. I don't watch TV anymore, say except for the evening news.