Addiction as usual

An ad created by Canadian toy maker Spin Master, LTD turned out unskippable, to the elation of anxious network-estranged advertisers, Jack Kapica of The Globe and Mail reports.

TiVo maintains an extensive userbase that measures what ads people watch, what ads don't get skipped, and which viewers are less inclined to skip ads.

That the skip-proof technology is out there suggests it may only be a matter of time before advertisers can ease comfortably back into ad-supported viewing models.

Kapica notes this technology may also break ground in the video anti-piracy movement, where a signal stream could be embedded with some similar capability.

In May TiVo touted the notion of "TiVo-proof ads," or ads that, contrary to technological implications, would simply be perceived as "so good" that they would not be skipped.