Man, isn't that a load of crap? ABC is meeting with cable providers to try and convince them that you don't want a fast-forward button on your DVR and that, instead, you'd like to sit through commercials.

According to this fool from ABC, the attraction of having a DVR is not that you can avoid commercials--no--it's the ability to have on demand programming.

Now, I agree that part of the charm of TiVo is that you can watch whatever you want whenever you want, but the other large, humungous part of its charm is that you can fast forward through all the inane drivel channels call advertising. I mark that as a unchecked bonus in my book and one of the main reasons I am a TiVo fundamentalist.

The only thing that is going to come of this is that your DVR won't come with a fast forward button in the future, but I'm counting on some people who are smarter than I am to come up with a hack for this.

MediaPostPublications.com: ABC Looks Beyond Upfront To DVR, Commercial Ratings Issues