When we moved to Sandpoint nine years ago, we quickly discovered that the gigantic, ugly antenna the previous owners had left in the yard was worthless. We got an extremely fuzzy version of one Spokane TV station.
We gave the hideous old antenna to one of the guys working on our house, but without the antenna, we got no television at all. So we bought a "newfangled" DirecTV satellite dish. (Back then, they cost a small fortune; now they practically give them away.)
Anyway, the net result is that I’ve almost never seen any of the "local" (read: Spokane) news, weather, or commercials. A few months ago, DirecTV offered to upgrade our dish so we can get local channels, but it didn’t work because we have too many trees for our dish to chat with the right satellite.
However, at the same time we failed to get local TV, we did get the Tivo upgrade. I realize that digital video recording (DVR) technology has been around for a while, but now I understand why it is such a big deal to so many people. Being able to watch your favorite shows at the time you choose and then fast-forward through the commercials is the best thing to happen to television, EVER.
I read that something like 70% of DVR owners fast forward through commercials. What I don’t get is why the other 30% would still watch that drek. Missing out on all those mind numbingly stupid, repetitive commercials is a fine thing, if you ask me.
There’s something supremely satisfying about knowing that my visual input is no longer captive to some overpaid ad executive’s latest revolting "concept" that’s supposed to entice me to buy something I don’t want.
It may have taken us longer to latch on to Tivo out here in the sticks, but we’re sure glad we figured it out.