This is comical:

Yesterday, Shaw told MediaDailyNews that his network has been talking to cable operators about disabling the fast-forward button on their digital video recorders to prevent commercial skipping. Wait, wait … the kicker is that he doesn’t think this would be any big deal to the audience. “I’m not so sure that the whole issue really is one of commercial avoidance,” Shaw said. “It really is a matter of convenience — so you don’t miss your favorite show. And quite frankly, we’re just training a new generation of viewers to skip commercials because they can. I’m not sure that the driving reason to get a DVR in the first place is just to skip commercials. I don’t fundamentally believe that. People can understand in order to have convenience and on-demand (options), that you can’t skip commercials.”

(from Good Morning Silicon Valley)

We’re becoming an increasingly time-poor society, and this is ABC’s answer? Oh brother!

Juxtapose that old media philosophy with new media businesses, like the super-cool jumpcut service where you can effortlessly edit and re-mix others’ published videos. Guess which one is clued in to the future and which one is hopelessly caught in the past!

The execs at ABC clearly need to read The Cluetrain Manifesto.