Tivo’s 30-second commercial skip easter egg
If you’ll recall, there was a lot of industry flap when DVRs were becoming available because of the effect that automatic pre-recording of programming would have on TV advertising. Automatic commercial-skipping features introduced the possibility that viewers could watch TV for the rest of their lives and never have to see another ad. ReplayTV, an early and promising competitor to Tivo, was basically destroyed by industry legal action over its automatic commercial-skipping feature. The fact that you have to fast-forward through commercials on your Tivo today, using that clunky pop-goes-the-weasel scan routine, is basically a concession to TV advertisers who would not abide a system that didn’t require you to at least watch the ads on fast-forward.
