The good news for Cox customers: Disney’s ABC and ESPN programming will be available on-demand. The bad news: You won’t be permitted to fast forward through any advertisements. That’s one heck of a trade off and a good argument to record shows yourself using the DVR of your choice. The advertising model, of course, is designed to fight (the possible perception of) DVR ad-skipping and to find new revenue streams. According to the WSJ:
The amount of advertising incorporated into the on-demand offerings is still under negotiation, according to George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports. Cox will likely get one 15-second commercial per episode to pitch its own products. The remainder of the spots will be a mix of national ads sold by the Disney-ABC Television Group and local ads sold by ABC’s affiliated stations.
And here I thought the future was product placement.