Imagine this scenario. You've just received the latest Hollywood blockbuster in the mail from the DVD rental service of your choice. You've popped the popcorn, poured a tall glass of your favorite beverage, and settled back to watch the film on your flatscreen TV. 15 minutes or so into the movie—right as the action is building to a crescendo—the movie fades to a commercial. For the next minute, you're forced to watch the commercial as the fast-forward button has suddenly stopped working. The unhappy experience is repeated two or three more times before the movie ends. The only way to avoid the interruption is to pay another buck or two to the company you rented from.

That's the scenario envisioned in a patent application filed by IBM (and dug up by Zatz Not Funny!). When DVDs are inserted for playback, the disc would check to see if the viewer had purchased the ad-free version or the (presumably) lower-priced version with unskippable commercials. If it's the latter, the disc player would phone home to an online service to download commercials or play ads embedded on the discs themselves.

From the standpoint of motion picture studios, the patent looks like pure genius. It would give them another source of cash in an era where DVD sales are down and traditional sources of revenue are under pressure. It could also become a way to get back-catalog, niche movies onto DVD, as embedded, unskippable commercials could shore up the business case for cracking open the vault.

Budget-minded consumers might not mind discs with ads, either. That $3.99 new release rental might be just $1.99 or even free if you're willing to sit through a few minutes of ads (another way in which the home theater experience can be more like going to the cinema).

While it might be difficult to implement the patent in current DVD players, the HD DVD spec requires players to have an Ethernet port for online connectivity. While the connectivity is intended for things like software and firmware updates as well as interactive content, there's no reason why it couldn't be used to download car commercials in 1080p.

The debut of network "catch up" services like that of ABC which allow TV fans to watch full episodes of their favorite series online with embedded, unskippable commercials proves that consumers are willing to watch ads in an unfamiliar venue if it means free content. That said, I think I'll pass on the $9.99 Lord of the Rings Presented by McDonald's box set, should it become available.