TVSquad

Fox is hoping to patent technology to replace the commercials in shows sitting on your personal video recorder.

In other words, if you record 24 Monday night, but wait until Thursday to watch it, some of the promos for upcoming shows, movie release dates, and ads for retail sales will be outdated by the time you watch it. This patent would automatically download updated commercials to replace the old ones.

Fox says it hopes to test the process with TiVo. On the one hand, this leverages the power of a PVR as basically an internet-connected computer. On the other hand, it ignores the fact that the users who skip past commercials don't really care if they're new or old.

Of course, if this technology works, it could lead to advertisers putting firmer cues than brief black screens on their commercials, which would make it easier for 3rd party developers to come up with accurate programs to automatically skip commercials. Programs like ComSkip and Snapstream BeyondTV's SmartChapter generator each do this today, with varying degrees of success.

[via TiVo Lovers]