Australia to get unskippable PVR adverts

The free-to-air digital television provider in Australia, Freeview, is run by the main terrestrial channel as Freeview in the UK is, but TV in Australia is more commercial than the UK and therefore advertising is key.

With the introduction of PVRs the fast forwarding of breaks has become a way of life, which is great for the viewer but advertisers paying top rates to get their products in front of people are not happy.

In order to combat advert skipping, Freeview will only be certifying products that use the interactive middleware MHEG 5.

The processor can restrict the fast forward speed, place advertising into recordings made on the set top box and, more importantly for the advertisers, it can bring up an advert as soon as the fast forward button is pressed.