The advertising contract

Advertising involves a largely covert contract between consumer and publisher. The former allows the latter to intersperse its content with advertising so that the content is consumed free. This applies in full to all non subscription TV and in part to every magazine and newspaper. The online ad model is identical and as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal take away their subscription access the model online is becoming as pure as TV.

TV's problem of course is ad avoidance, the dreaded DVR or even the humble remote mean that the consumer is welching on his end of the contract and the advertisers are not happy.

For a sniff of the future take a look at the full episode player on ABC.COM. Quite apart from the unimaginable beauty of the interface (created by friends of mine!!) and the riotous quality of Move Networks Player the contract is both overt and exquisite. You get a little painless ad break at the beginning and that's it; unless you choose to fast forward in which case you get a maximum of three thirty second ad breaks in the hour. Cutely a corner counter tells you just how much longer you have to endure unless you choose to spend a second or an age interacting with the ad itself and all that surrounds it before resuming viewing.

This is good on three accounts; the viewer gets limited amounts of advertising but no deluge, the advertisers get some exclusivity and the opportunity for real engagement, the media owner gets to sell a premium product for good money.

All good.