Remember when you could use a remote to avoid commercials?

[Syrinx]

It seems pretty much impossible now. If there's an ad on one channel, chances are that any other channel you flip to will also be airing a commercial.

This probably has something to do with the fact that most of the non-premium channels that I watch are all owned by the very same company -- Comcast-NBC-Universal.

This phenomenon is not the gist of my complaint, but only the most obvious symptom of the underlying problem.

Pecking this post in upon the germ of an idea, I don't know the exact numbers. But I do know that the vast majority of the channels that are available for us to watch are all owned by a very small number of mega-corporations.

Probably Comcast-NBC-Universal, Time-Warner, Disney, and Viacom.

I know there is no chance, because Eric Holder is useless. But I would really like to see the Justice Department dispense some justice, and break up the media monopoli.

Media consolidation is one of the biggest problems in this country. We have hundreds of channels, but only a quartet of voices. And they all speak the same language.

[Tesha]

1. Our very own hero, The Big Dog, signed the legislation that made media consolidation so much more...

...possible. Brilliant work there, Bill, just brilliant!

Tesha

[Syrinx]

3. yeah, that was one of the shittiest things he did

Why do you even need Republicans, when the Democrats do their deeds for them?

[pipoman]

2. You still can

if you use a DVR. When we got ours the motto on the box was, 'changing the way you watch TV'. It did that. We record series which we otherwise wouldn't watch because they are so commercial heavy..just fast forward through. We also put it on a channel we want to watch and pause it and go do something else, then when we come back we can fast forward through commercials. We were given our first one in return for a contract with DirecTV, I would buy one to replace it if something happened to this one...it's great.

[Syrinx]

4. I think you missed the spirit of my message

And the DVR, I suspect, is sending even more data back to Comcast-NBC-Universal, or some equivalent, in order to further undermine your privacy.

[madrchsod]

5. i`m going to go to roku and hulu this year.

i`ll keep some of the dish programming, use roku and hulu,and i will get more channels for less cost.

the new internet televisions are going to change television programming

[Syrinx]

6. not as much as you think

Hulu is a joint venture of NBC Universal (Comcast/General Electric), Fox Entertainment Group (News Corp) and ABC Inc. (The Walt Disney Company).

[eilen]

7. You can't even fast forward through

commercials on Hulu Plus.

And that is a subscription service. Granted it is only one commercial but how long do you think that will last?

We Roku/Netflix/Hulu now but the way things are going we might give it all up for good. I don't even miss regular tv or news. I get what I need online and radio.