LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Another front has opened in the attack on commercials.
Apple
received a patent Tuesday for technology that would allow users to
switch seamlessly to their own audio or video files once ads started
playing on their TV or radio.
Unlike Dish Network's
Auto Hop feature that allows users to bypass ads, with the Apple
device, a user's iTunes library would kick in and play music, video or a
podcast.
As for Apple's plan, according to the patent approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office: "When an electronic device
determines that an upcoming media item in a media broadcast is not of
interest to a user, the electronic device can switch playback from the
media stream to a media item from the electronic device local library,"
the patent said.
The networks are
not likely to be happy. CBS, Fox and NBC already have filed lawsuits
against Dish, saying Auto Hop is illegal and reduces the advertising
revenue the networks depend on to purchase programming.
The feds granted
the tech titan the new patent just a week after clearing the way for
Apple to create a TiVo-like box that would allow the recording or
pausing of live television.
The new patent seems to increase the speculation surrounding a revamped, broadcast-integrated Apple TV.
It also could
impair talks Apple is currently having with top network executives to
negotiate a deal that could bring live television to Apple TV, limited
at first to streaming services like Netflix, Hulu or iTunes rentals.
AppleInsider was the first to report on the patent.
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