No more fast forward...

Today I read that ABC and ESPN (parent company: Walt Disney Co.) has put together a deal with Cox Communications regarding their video-on-demand service that will effectively disable the fast-forward function on programs like "Desparate Housewives", "Grey's Anatomy", "Lost", and "Ugly Betty". Granted, these programs are available for viewing the day after they run in their regular time slot but I have to wonder...

Cox's consumer customers pay a fee for VOD service that has certain features and benefits that they (the customer) have determined are worth a premium price. Now, Cox has decided that the needs and wants of their business customer (Disnsey, ABC, ESPN) are more important so they are, in effect, changing the offering for their consumers to satisfy their business customers.

Now I love cable TV. I love TV in general. But I would bet my hard earned cash that Cox didn't mention to their consumer customers that they were changing their offering. I'll bet they never asked them if they'd mind a change in the offering. And I'd bet even more they never said, "Look, we're making this deal and it's going to change the way the service you pay for works; you won't be able to fast-forward for certain shows. If you want to be able to fast-forward with the service you pay for, there are other offerings out there that will let you like a satellite service or competing cable provider; you should go there."

The president of advertising sales for ABC, Mike Shaw, says that cable operators "are in the same business we're in", that being the business of selling ads. But here's sort of the rub: if you're in the business of selling ads, then the programming should be free for consumers, as it is, for the most part, on network TV. I know cable costs money but that is my next point.

Cable operators are in the business of selling access — not ads. Cable subscribers pay for access to the infrastructure that the cable companies have built. Networks also fund that infrastructure by paying to access it as a means to delivering their content (ad funded) to consumers; it's a cyclical thing.

But what Disney, ABC, ESPN and Cox are missing is that they are trying to force an outdated model and method of thinking on a progressive and independent consumer; a consumer that has made a decision to assert some control over something that was previously out of their control.

Part of the reasoning that makes Cox and Disney think they can devalue the consumer role at this point is that VOD and DVR have a low penetration into consumer households and that, at this point, there are fewer people to piss off. I think that this is a bad idea and a bad precedent if other cable operators, satellite operators, and others, adopt this thinking and approach.

It seems appropriate to insert this quote from, of all things, the movie Network: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"