Since the arrival of TiVo, people have been enjoying features such as pause, rewind and fast forward when watching TV. Nowadays, these features are standard on many digital TV tuner boxes. Despite their success, broadcasters are becoming increasingly annoyed that TV watchers are able to simply skip over commercials entirely -- even though this can be done simply by changing channels.

Philips has announced that it has invented the means to circumvent the skipping of commercials by PVR devices. By using signals embedded in broadcasts, Philips is able to lock a PVR from fast forwarding over the commercial or even prevent a viewer from changing the channel. The technology, says Philips, will stop a user from changing the channel, forcing the viewer to watch a commercial until it was complete. The only problem is that after the commercial is complete, if the viewer changes the channel and lands on a station in the midst of a commercial, the viewer may get locked in. The fact that users may not be able to even change their channels has many furious. Philips admits that this technology may not bode well with viewers.

Most tuner products use technology from Philips, and in many cases, Philips designs whole tuners. If Philips decides to offer this new technology at no additional cost, the majority of the PVR market as well as broadcasting stations would not hesitate one second to put the anti-commercial-skipping technology to use.