As someone who came of age in the early '70s, I always thought I had a healthy sense of cynicism when it came to dealing with The Establishment. A few years back, when I found myself debating with my son the dangers of illegally downloading music, I discovered I had become The Establishment.

Now, on the issue of network-based digital video recorders, I find myself uncomfortably caught with one foot on either side of the great divide.

The issue is whether we consumers should be allowed to record programming and then fast-forward through all the commercials. This is something to which, I've admitted in the past, I have become addicted. If I want to watch a program at roughly its scheduled time, I make sure it's recording on our DVR, then come back 15 to 20 minutes later to watch the show in question, without ever watching the ads.

The cable industry is moving away from this. Time Warner Cable's Start-Over service disables fast-forwarding, and the company's CEO, Glenn Britt, said last week at The Cable Show that he thinks that's OK with most consumers.

I think he's crazy. As far as I'm concerned, you will get my fast-forward button when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Unfortunately, while I'm a child of the '70s, I'm an adult of the new millennium, the time period in which everything has to have a Business Case, be Monetized or have a Provable ROI. Allowing consumers to fast-forward through the ads that pay for content creation destroys the underlying financial structure of current TV programming--of that there is no doubt.

As bad as programming may sometimes be, it is likely to get much worse without advertising--or anything decent is likely to be offered at a price to consumers. I don't care for either idea.

Both AT&T and Verizon as part of their IPTV offerings are enabling multiple-room DVRs, an improvement over what cable is offering and a step up, even, on satellite providers. How attractive would that service be without fast-forwarding capability?

I don't have any answers here, just a whole bunch of questions. Let me know what you think.

Email me at cwilson3@telephonyonline.com.