Over the weekend, I wrote a post about how product placement and alternative forms of marketing will become more important, partly because technology will make it easier to skip over ads. A New York Appeals Court ruling this morning increases that threat significantly.
The case centers around Cablevision’s wish to offer its consumers DVR functionality (including ad-skipping features) at the network, or ‘cloud’ level, as opposed to solely on individual set-top boxes. An initial court ruling agreed with content owners who charged that the feature amounted to copyright infringement, but the appeals court overturned the decision, saying basically that a network DVR is nothing more than ‘a DVR with a long cord.’
A story on Barron’s Online notes that Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett believes if the decision sticks (another appeal is likely), DVR penetration could rise from 25% levels to more than 60% in a very short time, and with more DVR-enabled outlets per home.
The article goes on: “Moffett contends the media companies should have settled the case by agreeing to network DVRs in return for a commitment to block ad skipping. ‘By failing to settle,” he writes, “the media companies now face the bleak prospect of a massive increase in ad-skipping.’”
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