Google Patent Proposes $2 Fee To Skip Commercials

theodp writes "A day after Google debuted its new Google TV website, the USPTO issued U.S. Patent No. 7,806,329 to the search giant for its Targeted Video Advertising invention. Among other things, the patent proposes having viewers take 5-10 minutes to 'fill out a consumer survey and perhaps to provide additional information such as a mailing address survey before starting the program' to avoid having to watch 10 minutes of commercials. 'As another alternative,' the patent continues, 'the broadcaster may offer the users an option to pay $2 (such as through a micro-payment system, such as GBuy) to exchange for skipping all commercials.' More from the patent: 'The system may allow a user to skip all of the promotions that they want to skip, but may also require the user to fully watch at least four promotions before the program will continue. Likewise, the system may require the user to follow activities that generate a certain amount of advertising revenue or advertising points (e.g., that may correspond directly or indirectly to advertising revenues) before the program will continue.'"

Re:Greed

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope in time commercial-less media is the norm.

I guess you haven't seen Demolition Man, have you?

Re:Greed

[commodore64_love]

I haven't been in a regular big movie theater in probably 7-8 years - the damned effort of having to take a bath and get dressed drove me away. Bittorrent is easier. Download at night and watch tomorrow.

Re:Greed

[An ominous Cow art]

Netflix has solved the problem for me, but there is still the tedium of selecting which DVDs I want, and the hardship of making the trek to the mailbox...