commercials

Like rival Dish, DirecTV has access to technology that could allow millions of subscribers to automatically skip TV commercials, but executives don't see much reason to offer it to consumers.

Mike White, CEO of largest satellite provider in the U.S., said at a media conference today that DirecTV bought the technology five years ago from a company called Replay TV but has not seen a reason to offer it to consumers, according to a Reuters account.

"We haven't chosen to use it," White said at the Reuters Global Media and Technology Summit in New York. &… Read more

In today's show, we're putting filters on Facebook, paying with our phones and watching the networks get hoppin' mad:

A battle is brewing in court between the major television networks and Dish Network's commercial-skipping Hopper DVR. The fight centers around a feature in the Hopper DVR called Auto Hop, which lets users instantly skip commercials for a show recorded the day prior from a major network during prime time. (No need for a fast-forward button!) Fox, NBC and CBS are suing Dish, arguing that commercial skipping violates copyright. And Fox added another layer to it, saying that … Read more

Dish Network and the major television networks are turning up the volume in their fight over a feature that allows viewers to skip commercials at the touch of a button.

Fox filed a lawsuit today in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to stop Dish from transmitting the network's programs in such a way that allows viewers to watch them without commercial interruptions. The lawsuit accuses Dish of copyright infringement and breach of contract.

"We were given no choice but to file suit against one of our largest distributors, Dish Network, because of their surprising move to … Read more

In today's show, we're Binging our friends, casting spells in Kindle's library, and bracing ourselves for the return of the browser wars:

Microsoft's Bing search engine now includes Facebook integration. When you search for something on Bing, a side panel will pop up and show which of your friends might help you with your search. So for example, if you search for hotels in Chicago, Bing will point out which of your friends live in Chicago.

Microsoft is also in the news today for stirring up the browser wars again. According to Mozilla, Microsoft is preventing … Read more

One of the first apps that showed off the power of early iPhones was Shazam, the app that let you hold up your iPhone to "listen" to music playing and could identify the artist and offer you options to buy that music.

Today, Shazam Entertainment announced a new update with Shazam 5.0 that makes the app even better than before. The company says the app now launches a second faster to let you identify media much more quickly. It also can take as little as 1 second to identify media once you touch the button, and even starts "listening" the second you open the app in case you're trying to identify media in a hurry.… Read more

Samsung's Galaxy Note promotion is going quite well, at least as far as its advertising is concerned.

A commercial for the device, called "The Best of a Phone and Tablet," was rated the most-effective ad during the first quarter of 2012. The commercial beat out Doritos's "Sling Baby" ad and the M&M's "Just My Shell" to take the top spot.

Ad effectiveness is a subjective measure. In order to give some clarity to the rankings, Ace Metrix asks for viewer reactions to commercials running on U.S. television. The … Read more

Today's existential question is this: has Samsung gone all Floyd Mayweather?

Just as it seems that Mayweather is reluctant to again take on Manny Pacquiao, Samsung appears to have forsaken its Apple-thumping.

The evidence for this bathed my eyes last night as I was watching "The Voice." (You don't? Why not? It's full of human nuance.)

For there was an extremely tame, almost rudimentary ad for the Samsung Galaxy Note.

In an almost paint-by-numbers fashion, the ad tried to show that the Galaxy Note gives you the best of a tablet and the best of … Read more

I never expected to write "Santorum," "Apple," and "1984" together in the same blog post, but here you go.

Apple fans (and anybody else even vaguely familiar with the history of commercials) will recognize a whole lot of vintage Macintosh-inspired marketing coming from Santorum's latest anti-Mitt Romney ad.

The video is titled "Rebellion." There's no doubt the Santorum ad is quoting from the original Apple endeavor. It features marching people wearing gray while authority figures bark slogans in the background and Romney's talking head glitches out like Max Headroom.

Instead of a woman in short-shorts with a big hammer, you get a woman hauling a "Santorum for President" political sign that she flips over to display a video of Santorum sharing his conservative views.

Santorum does manage to squeeze in a quick clip of some baby-hugging near the end. This is a political ad, after all.… Read more

It's fair to say the planners at Boeing Test & Evaluation spiced up a recent extended operation test of the Boeing 787.

Spanning 9,000 nautical miles over 12 states, the 787's impressive route spells out "787" and the Boeing logo like a giant Etch A Sketch in the sky. The next-generation commercial airplane took off on February 9 at 1:33 p.m. from Boeing's airfield in Washington state, and landed this morning at 8:45 a.m. Some of the turns needed to create the numbers and logo seem like they'd send a stomach into a spin, but the zoomed-out map exaggerates the sharpness of the turns. … Read more