The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

And maybe even Tivo (gasp! Did I say that??).

So, as a marketer, I get the whole rage against the Tivo revolution thing. It could spark a toilet bowl effect: no advertising means no money for networks which means no money for developing quality programming (alright, alright. Who am I kidding? What I really mean by "quality" is Laguna Beach, Top Chef, Project Runway and the plethora of other primetime shows that I so enjoy). How's the money train going to keep on chugging?

The coolest thing about innovation is that it forces the whole one-up-em thing-- for both new entrants and the establishment (if they stand a chance of staying in business, that is). And guess what? The establishment has done it. ABC is letting viewers watch episodes of last season's hit shows (among them Desperate Housewives, Lost and Alias)-- for FREE. That's right, oh loyal readers. No longer must you spend money on iTunes or wait for summer repeats or the DVD release. You can go to ABC's website and watch all of last season, free of charge (you don't even have to REGISTER and subject yourself to endless spam from the network. Huh. That's actually a decent idea. They should hire me). The only "catch" is that each show has three, unavoidable, 30-second commercials, which when compared to the sometimes 5+ minutes of broadcast tv interstitials (believe it; I've actually timed it with my trusty Tivo), is a cake walk.

Pure genius.

It's a win-win for everyone. Networks get their ad revenue; Advertisers get their consumers; Consumers get to catch up on missed episodes of their favorite tv shows. And the BEST thing? It offers up another challenge for innovation that benefits us, the reinstated, all-powerful consumer: shorter, and better, tv commercials.

That is, until the next Tivo revoltion.