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How much you pay for cable TV will depend on how much time you spend checking
out ads, if a Japanese electronics company gets its way. Subscribers who want to
see uninterrupted programmes will pay the top rate. Anyone who wants to pay less
will find advertising icons springing up on their screen. Selecting an icon
displays a full advert and deducts a small amount from your subscription fee,
says NEC in EP 1107593. Meanwhile, a hard disc built into the set-top box
records the programme you’re missing. To get a bigger reduction, viewers can
click on advertising icons buried in each advert.