Philips: Setting the Record Straight

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by: Alain Thys

Sentiments have been running a bit high about Philips' alledged plan to "force" us all to watch advertisements whether we like it or not.  According to Catharine Taylor at Adweek we can all calm down as the consumer electronics firm is going around the blogosphere to set the record straight (we didn't get it, yet I guess we're not on their blogroll 🙂

Inventors from Royal Philips Electronics (Philips) filed a patent application, as yet not granted, that enables watching a television movie without advertising. However, some people do want to see the ads. So, we developed a system where the viewer can choose, at the beginning of a movie, to either watch the movie without ads, or watch the movie with ads. It is up to the viewer to take this decision, and up to the broadcaster to offer the various services. Philips never had the intention to force viewers to watch ads against their will and does not use this technology in any current Philips products, nor do we have any plans to do so.