unless they could stop you from skipping them. But with ubiquitous PVRs on the horizon (which will compete on their merits) the ability for the unwashed masses

unless they could stop you from skipping them. But with ubiquitous PVRs on the horizon (which will compete on their merits) the ability for the unwashed masses to skip ads automatically is pretty much upon us. I think that the problem for television broadcasters is that they realise if everyone gets used to downloading shows to watch on demand, they'll become increasingly irrelevant. So, instead of cannibalising their existing businesses to reinvent themselves, most of them will kick and scream to try to delay the inevitable. It's mostly amusing, apart from the fact that all the kicking and screaming ends up in pain for us because part of it involves bribing congress critters to protect the incumbents failing business models.