Philips would like to take advantage of Multimedia Home Platform -- the technology behind interactive television in many countries around the world -- to add flags to commercial breaks to stop a viewer from changing channels until the adverts are over and to disable the fast forward control while they are playing.

Philips' realizes that implementation of this patent may be "greatly resented by viewers" but suggests that the system could offer viewers the chance to pay a fee interactively to go back to skipping adverts. Wow, thanks.

See the source article at New Scientist and the patent.