Video On Demand

[Hurt1]

I am very upset that more and more shows are not allowing you too fast forward thru commercials. The advertisers paid for the commercials on live tv. I pay for on demand so that I can watch what I want, when I want. I was watching a program when I had to stop for a few minutes. Ten minutes later On demand deleted the program so if I wanted to finish the program I had to watch the whole program again. I would love to have people post their protest here. Demand they stop this policy now!

[rog286713]

your going to have to protest the networks they are the ones that are doing it.  If you want the programming that is what the networks are telling has to be done.  If you start something on demand you can resume it for up to 24 hours, you have to go to your on demand menu and to the last page to saved programs you can resume it there. 

[comnasty]

I say boycott shows that do this

[djmiXim]

Absolutely agree!  They should NOT have any commercials for an "On Demand" venue.  Same thing as when you go to the theater, pay $10 per person to have a 'different experience', and end up watching 20 commecrcials (prior to the 50 previews) that you've seen on TV hundreds of times already. Why?

[andyross]

Then you do not want to read this:

http://www.multichannel.com/article/480186-CableLabs_VOD_Advertising_Technically_Ready_To_Roll.php

[JamesJJK]

[How To] Bypass/Workaround On Demand (VOD) Fast Forward Block w/ 5 Minute Skip Button

https://getsatisfaction.com/cim/topics/_how_to_bypass_workaround_on_demand_vod_fast_forward_block_w_...

[traceray]

I think Comcast is calling are bluffs on this one. Free OnDemand programming does not add to their bottom line. Paid DVR service does. Comcast if I am wrong, the networks need to know how unhappy your customers are. Used to watch a lot of OnDemand programming, with having to wade thru commercials that has become severely limited. How bad do I want to sit through five minutes of nonsense, every other five minutes?

[Killjoyy]

Just saw the greatest movie ever sold.. applies here... the greedy corporate world makes money on adverstising and at this point it aint goin anywhere. The page up 5 min skip is a good trick just have to wait and rewind a bit. Its a pain but it beats watchin commercials. Im sure it eont be long till they"fix" that too.. then its wAtch with adds or dont watch

[wsjiii]

I watched half of The Voice last night, it was a two hour show. I planned on finishing it tonight but I can't pick up where I left off without wasting an hour waiting. I've heard of using the page up buttons, but they don't work for me.

[ComcastJoe]

---

wsjiii wrote:

I watched half of The Voice last night, it was a two hour show. I planned on finishing it tonight but I can't pick up where I left off without wasting an hour waiting. I've heard of using the page up buttons, but they don't work for me.

---

Like rog286713 said, the networks set these restrictions.

To have the rights to put most shows On Demand, we are required by the owners of those shows to run the ads. That's just the nature of the business. If we did not show the ads, simply we would not have the shows at all. The content owners would not give it to us and you could not watch them at all. 

Not all content owners have done this as of now and I understand that almost no On Demand content had ads as a few years ago. This is still fairly new and I do not know if more programs will have ads in the future but I wouldn't bet against it.

Premium channels like HBO, Starz, etc. do not have ads because customers have to pay a "premium" price to receive these channels. Because of the price they charge, they do not need to rely on ads to bring in income. Will this be like this forever? I think so but I do not know what the future holds.

Hope this clears up some of your questions.

Thanks,
Joe
XfinityTV.com/Xfinity.com Support
Twitter: @XfinityTVJoe

[RT_Pittsburgh]

I agree that the removal of the fast forwarding feature is troubling, even from a navigational point of view. 

Anyone want to start a petition on Change.org?

[cdv0728]

I, too, am sick of it! I am paying for this service. Did you also notice that if you use the "30 Second Button" while watching On Demand, that the show rewinds 3 minutes!!!??? Then, after realizing how lame this feature is, you are forced to slowly, slowly fast forward to where you left off.

Granted, I'm saving over $ 100 a month over AT&T, but these restrictions have to go.

[cdv0728]

No, I will not protest the networks. I am a subscriber to Comcast. I pay my hard earned money to Comcast. As far as I am concerned, it is a Comcast problem. Hey Comcast, what say you?

[jthomp]

Joe,

  I'm glad you answered this question to some degree.  However it would be in Comcast's interests to vie for their customers.  Comcast is the middle man in this whole deal, if it wants to stay relevent with my generation (80s-90s gen) they better start to listen to customer complaints and make changes.  My generation is hard to please and is very savvy with the internet, hence why HULU, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc continue to gain market share.  Being the middle man Comcast is in a position that allows them to negotiate stricter rules for their customers.  Comcast holds the key to the viewers and thus the cash for the marketing folks and in turn the Networks, not the other way around.  Comlaints won't go to the networks, but to Comcast.  Consumers don't pay the networks directly and everyone "in the industry" knows this.

[LFJim]

So...this is all because of network decisions and Comcast has no control? I feel like someone is peeing on my shoe and telling me it's raining. No way Comcast is not sharing in the profits from these ads. We pay >$ 100/month for basic Xfinity HD service and an HD DVR - money paid directly to COMCAST. I don't like paying for delivery of 160+ channels when we watch maybe 10% of them. I will NOT pay for service AND sit through a bunch of ads. I would not mind paying a nominal amount to watch individual shows a la carte - without ads

I'm finding an increasing number of "blank" DVR recordings. I tried to watch an HD recording of The Firm last night. It wouldn't play. O.K. I'l just watch it On Demand. Wow, have things changed! I counted 9-10 ads, some repeated during the same break, and at least 6 breaks. I hope it's just a coincident that our number of blank recordings has spiked just as On Demand ads have also spiked. What's next?s Comcast going to take control of my AV processor and prevent me from muting the sound during ads?

Again, Comcast, we're paying for a service and are suddenly getting much less than we bargained for. This needs to be fixed, or you'll follow the path of Blockbuster, at least in our home. 

[Barmar]

A year ago, most of these programs weren't available at all. Now they're available, but with caveats. While it might not be ideal, it has to be seen as an improvement.

[Provaporous]

== PAGE UP/DOWN BUTTONS NOW BLOCKED ==

This is ridiculous, I could put up with not being able to fast forward through commercials and past parts of the show that I have already seen because at least I could use the page up/down buttons on the remote to skip 5 mins in either direction.Check some of the programs on NBC On Demand, you can no longer use the page up/down buttons. Now you have to sit and watch the entire program to get to the last 5 mins. There is a reason people pirate TV shows and movies.

"Piracy isn’t a legal problem it’s a service issue." Gabe Newell

[andyross]

Do you have an example? I tried the latest 30 Rock, and 5-min skip still works.

[Firecow]

The 5-minute skip activated by the page up button stopped working about 1-2 months ago for me.  As Provaporous said, it is incredibly frustrating if you just want to watch the last part of an episode because you have to wait through the entire episode.

The page up button appears to be disabled for any program that also has regular fast forward disabled.  Although pressing fast forward shows the "prohibited" icon (a circle with a line through it), pressing page up shows the usual "curved arrow" icon, but no 5-minute skip occurs.  Perhaps the issue is an unintended programming bug?

Example shows that no longer support 5-minute skipping for me:

Fringe, Once Upon a Time, 30 Rock

Example shows that do support 5-minute skipping (and regular fast forward) for me:

Eureka, Psych, The Killing

My DVR is a Motorola DCX 3400, and I'm in the Madison Heights/Hazel Park, MI, region.

[Provaporous]

Thanks for confirming Firecow, I also saw the curved arrow icon but nothing happened, but unfortunately when you see " fast forwarding and OTHER features may be disabled" at the start of the video it leads me to think this is new policy. I expect this from Hulu because I'm not paying for it, but from comcast? really?

[andyross]

Tried Fringe here in Chicago. 5-minute skip still works.

[JeffandBecky]

Being a Daily Show fan I am appalled that I can no longer fast forward through the commercials! AND,,, the pile on Nine (9) commercials into the On Demand version. Do NOT Tell me that Xfinity can NOT change that policy!!! We pay our exorbitant monthly fee and than have to endure commercials too??? BS!

[JeffandBecky]

Are you kidding??? If someone pees on your head in the summer? Do you thank them for cooling you off? In the "Past" I could fast forward and had control over how I watched the programs I wanted using the On Demand function.  I no longer have the same options, they took that away from me! When we get all your programming for free, I will put up with HAVING to watch commercials and on demand the way Comcast "lets" me!

[Fifth313ment]

Yeah, Comcast in my area has now blocked 5 minute OnDemand forwarding in my area (South Florida). It sucks as at least with the 5 minute skip ahead you could fast forward if you needed to (eg: DVR messed up or you missed a portion of the show). Now if you miss the end of a show you have to sit through 45+ minutes to get to a few minutes of content. Most people didn't use the 5 minute skip to go through commercials and then back but rather when they needed to get to the end of a show. WTH Comcast?

Also I notice new shows which have just been added have many more commercials than shows which are a week or older. I believe Comcast is already using what that one user posted the link to about dynamic VOD commercials systems. EG: The Great Escape on TNT is 60 minutes for this weeks episode but the show that is over a week or two is 44 minutes as is every show older than that one. I noticed this happens on almost all shows. Some shows that are over a week old will have one or no commercials but shows that are new can have as many as 9+! WTH!?

http://www.multichannel.com/article/480186-CableLabs_VOD_Advertising_Technically_Ready_To_Roll.php

[jthomp]

Yeah, my wife started to really notice lately.  If this junk continues I'll ditch cable TV altogether.  We're looking for ways to save more cash anyways.
 
I've already called them once and threatened to leave; I ended up with most channels + most of the movie channels, but it's like maybe $40 bucks cheaper than I had been paying.  Heck for what I paid for at least 2-3 months they've already made up what was lost for this entire year.

With that amount of cash being paid out you'd think they listen to their customers.

Most people don't understand how the entire TV System is setup (ie: Networks, Cable Companies, Advertisers, et. al.)  While it is an intricate system it doesn't have to be that way and it certainly doesn't mean that Comcast has to bow down to those higher up the food chain.  Comcast is the one that has the keys to the customers (ie: the cash flow *into* that system).  If customers wanted TV Free and then decided to walk if they didn't get then the whole system would fall apart.

Honestly I don't see how Advertisers even get paid anymore.  I certainly don't buy stuff based on TV Ads.  I read articles or I shop based on price using paper ads (from a newspaper) or based on prices within the store.  TV for most people these days is for: background noise, snoozing to, Education (to a degree), and for winding down.  Ads are a distraction to all of the above.  I certainly don't want to fast-forward at a snails pace when I want to get to near the end of a show because I've seen the rest of it previously.

[andyross]

I tried the latest episode of Grimm as a test, and 5 minute skip still works here in the Chicago area.