EE and BT TV Customers Can No Longer Skip Adverts on ITV
Residential customers of UK broadband ISP BT and EE, specifically those taking their pay TV products, will next week lose the ability to fast-forward through adverts for ITV recordings when in “Internet Mode” (streaming), which is said to be in line with the behaviour of the ITVX app.
Customers will still be able to pause, fast-forward and rewind ITV shows like normal, but they won’t be able to fast-forward through the adverts. The change will affect customers using either their ‘Mini Box’ or the ‘TV Box Pro’ devices when in Internet Mode (Stream TV Channels from the Internet). But it’s worth noting that users of the ITVX app can re-add this feature, albeit by paying £5.99 per month for their ‘Premium’ plan.
A short statement, posted to BT’s Community Forum, states: “From 6th November we will be changing the way customers can use Internet Mode to stream and record ITV channels to prevent advertising breaks being skipped using pause and fast forward options on when watching live streaming or recordings.”
Advertisement
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
« EE UK Hikes Monthly Roaming Fees by 150 Percent in 2023
Openreach Prep Alternative UK Analogue Style Phone Product »
A quick note that you while you can pay for itvX Premium, the current version of the app on the BT TV box doesn’t support all the features (HD, FAST channels, live channels).
Pay more, get less.
Maybe these people should just get a freeview PVR if that is what they want to do. No doubt pay a premium for that box anyway, after all it is BT.
My first BT box was free. So i get one free box with discount sports for £19. On Sky the BT/TNT sports is £28 so saving money by getting it from BT.
… why would someone pay for BT TV (or Sky or Virgin) if they solely wanted Freeview channels?
None of this appears to be BT’s fault – it’ll be the deal ITV has negotiated to allow them to put the ITV channels on “internet mode”. Same reason why you must sign in to iPlayer/Sounds for the BBC channels, even though it is delivered over BT’s multicast platform. It’s a shame ITV doesn’t recognise that BT is effectively expanding their coverage for free though.
“It’s a shame ITV doesn’t recognise that BT is effectively expanding their coverage for free though.”
They did. That’s what these changes are about – ITV make their money from adverts, the last thing they want is viewers skipping those adverts – otherwise advertisers will be asking difficult questions about the accuracy of ITV’s viewing figures. Obviously if you’ve recorded the content off air to your own PVR then there’s nothing they can do about that, but for people using ISP-provided boxes (or even ISP digital services) then it’s easily within the gift of the ISP to block advert skipping. You can get cheap junk PVRs for as little as twenty quid but you can imagine the quality, and any halfway decent TV will have the capacity to record to a memory stick, but how many of BT’s customers will bother? If they cared they’d not have gone with a big bundle from a pricey ISP that leaves them with no control.
Record everything, watch it a day behind and then you can always skip adverts for free
That’s what I do – shows like Strictly, Bake Off and Grand Designs are all reduced to around 15-20mins when I skip all the ads, previews, recaps and other drivel.
But that’s what this story is about. If you record shows on ITV you’ll no longer be able to fast forward the ads on the recordings.
haha, pay premium to get extra features like no ads or ability to skip them, then be striped from these features and get price hike 😀
You dont pay extra to get the extra features i got’em for free on BT. On Sky after one year you have to pay a fiver a month. What price hike? Its ITV you have to blame for their premium service. Everyone that wants ITV premium has to pay ITV, not to BT.
@Anon
Do you pay extra(premium) for BT?
This incredible technological advance in fleecing the customer is called “progress”. Yay for progress!!
Fix it by simply not watching ITV en masse. They’ll soon get the message.
But it won’t happen.
I always hate adverts on tv. I brought clever add on plugin Zgemma to skip any adverts during recording. Clever bits!
I presume I’d still using an aerial connection you are unaffected
Yes you can still fast forward using an aerial, that’s why I’ll never switch to internet mode
…until terrestrial broadcasting switches-off!
(Admittedly that won’t be for a long time yet!)
As far as I see the only reason you would the BT box into internet mode is if you had no terrestrial aerial service. In aerial mode you can record 4 channels concurrently, in internet mode only 2 so you’ve already reduced the functionality of the box using internet mode.