[Carmine]

First of all, let's not mix "bugs" with ads. As mentioned earlier, the proper term should be "pop-up ad".

I'm pretty accustomed to station ID bugs in the lower right corner. What makes this new NBC pop-up so bad is that it's a 1/3 of the way up from the bottom, right in your main field of view. It's advertising another inane NBC show. It never goes away. The standard NBC identifier bug is there too.

It would be nice to think that "artistic integrity" still existed, and that some producers might have it written into their network contracts that their "art" is not to be plastered with screen bugs and other promotional trash throughout the entire show.

Yeah I know, dream on.

Hell, we're being subjected to re-runs and second rate garbage this season because the networks won't give up $.02 of a revenue stream that didn't even exist 10 years ago. (See also: Writer's strike)

As far as preventing people from taping network TV shows to resell... Who does that?? Hard to believe that pirating network TV is more than a multi-hundred-dollar racket! Dream on; it's just another thing for them to "BRAND".

If bugs are so objectionable for people who would like to watch a pirate DVD, why is it "OK" to subject your prime-time viewers to them?

Bah! If they ever produced a recent TV show I wanted to see more than once (if that), I'd go out of my way to find this mythical pirate DVD!