EchoStar to push TV ads

[John Corn]

Coming soon to a TV in your home, whether you like it or not -- lots of really great advertising.

Littleton-based EchoStar Communications Corp. plans to expand efforts to pump advertising and other programming into the personal video recorders that serve as the company's satellite signal receivers, even while consumers in England howl in protest over a similar tactic by a rival company.

In England, owners of TiVo PVRs awoke one recent morning to discover that they had a new, unrequested BBC program recorded onto their hard drives. It was listed on their PVR menus as, "A must see from the BBC -- Dossa and Joe," and consumers discovered they could not delete the item.

Mike Goodman, an industry analyst for the Yankee Group, described the consumer reaction as "very negative."

A PVR holds a limited amount of recorded content, usually about 35 hours worth. EchoStar has shipped about a half million PVRs to Dish Network subscribers. EchoStar controls the signal, and company spokesman Marc Lumpkin said EchoStar has "pushed" content into PVRs occasionally in the past, but the practice will increase by the end of this summer.


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[Nick]

Not on my PVR they won't! :mad:

[cnsf]

How can you prevent it?

[Scott Greczkowski]

That material from EchoStar always resides in a portion of the hard drive "reserved" for Echostar's use, Lumpkin said, so it does not cut into the typical 35-hour capacity.

Now EchoStar plans to expand the use of the "EchoStar portion" of the hard drive, providing movie listings of local theaters and video-game promotions, all by the end of the summer.

I actually do not have a problem with it. Imagine if you own a 721 and you want to watch a Pay Per View movie, you can click a button on your remote and watch the movie without having to wait for normal start times because the movie is already on your hard drive!

Dish has left room on the PVR drives for their exclusive use and there is enough room for 5 complete movies.

It's space I can't use anyways so to me its no big deal.

And I also thought that the 501 instructional video they sent down was the smartest idea they have had in a long time! It is great that they updated the 501 and actually told people how to use the new features!

[AllieVi]

It occurrs to me that this feature may eventually provide a strategy for E* to deliver and be compensated for commercials. E* could store them on the PVR and then "air" them at the appropriate time during a normal program. This technology is in its infancy and no one knows what it will be when it grows up.

[Scott Greczkowski]

I hoep that we don't see force pushed ads, where you go to watch a show you taped on a PVR and first have to sit through an Echostar commercial.

As I said for somethings this technology is a good idea, but for others its not. :)

[dlsnyder]

The thought of not having to sit through Enerex commercials anymore was almost enough to make me get a 501. Now it looks like 501 owners might see even more of them! :(

[SRubie]

It is my understanding that this feature will be an option, if you want to designate the the HD space or not. If so, I assume it will be a menu option.