The competition between television content distributors - traditional cable, satellite TV, streaming-video companies, and even the pirates out there - has just crossed an important line. Dish Network chomped firmly on the hand that feeds it by providing a new service called “Auto Hop,” which allows consumers to press a button to skip entire advertising pods during a TV show.

DVRs were bad enough, but at least they required a little work, if not skill, to successfully execute. Not to mention the consumer would still sort of see the ads as they whipped by at 4X speed.

But one button and POOF?

It's time for advertisers to take action.

Yes, there are some hurdles for consumers to jump in order to "Auto Hop" that you can read about in Eric Savitz's article, "Dish: Prime Time TV, No Ads; Can They Get Away With That?" But Advertisers can no longer just sit back and watch the content distribution market fight each other for dominance. Not when part of that fight now includes sacrificing the exposure those advertisers have paid for, which, in turn, pays for the very content these distributors are distributing.

Dish Chairman, Charlie Ergen, is right when he says, “I think the conversation is going to go a lot faster because now there is a risk of inaction as opposed to no risk of inaction.”

Which is easy to say when you're the guy who pulled the plug at the bottom of the boat. At first, those on the boat will want to punish the guy for pulling the plug, but once it’s pulled and thrown overboard the clock starts ticking for a new solution or you're all sunk.

So let me throw out a wild idea to spur the discussion. Though I've been in the advertising business for 24 years, I do not know everything about the content distribution business. However, as I like to say, a healthy dose of informed naiveté can sometimes go a long way when someone pulls the plug on your boat.

It's a fine time to rethink the advertising model in a way that empowers consumers and provides value to advertisers, content creators, and content distributors alike.

So, see what you think. Poke holes. Tell me I'm nuts. But keep in mind the fact we're sinking.

The problem to solve.

The idea below begins by facing the following problem head on: why do consumers want to "Auto Hop" the ads in the first place?

I would argue that, due to the "broad" part of the word "broadcast," the consumer has been conditioned to believe that most advertising is irrelevant to them. We call it a media buy's inherent "waste." The consumer calls it a waste of his or her time. Enter Dish's "Auto Hop" to eradicate the irrelevance.

But therein lies the opportunity.

What if every ad running on a consumer's television set was relevant?

What if we stopped "targeting" consumers and started involving them?

What if consumers could tell us what's relevant to them, and then we responded by delivering corresponding advertising?

It's a bridal registry for advertising.

Here's the idea: create a "National Advertising Registry For Consumers" (yes, I recognize and value the irony this acronym "NARC" presents), where consumers can privately register a minimum number of product categories that are relevant to them at any point in time and then the advertisers who represent those categories can serve advertising only to those who raise their hands.

Sort of an anti-"Do Not Call List."

Perhaps a registry such as this is not so far fetched. The technology already exists to microtarget consumers through the TV channel. And consumers have been directly (filling out profiles) or indirectly (through online behavior) releasing more and more personal information anyway through social and retail web sites over the years with the benefit of relevant content being served back to them.

While it may be a tough sell to get consumers to proactively provide such detailed shopping intentions to an online registry, the selling point would be the control over the advertising messages consumers would suddenly enjoy. Further, privacy will be critical for this idea to work. The advertisers will not be allowed to directly access the database of consumer profile information. They will only be able to buy in the aggregate like a normal media buy today, or categories of consumers within the Registry.

Now we're not talking categories as niche as "Power Tools," although there could be voluntary selections down to that level. The Registry would require a fixed number of broader interests like "Gardening," "Sports," Automobiles," Vacations," and things like that. Broad enough so that any new products consumers are unaware of can still find a category for exposure, but narrow enough so that the consumer can, in fact, control the kinds of advertising they are forced to view.

But what about products that don't fit in any current category? A new invention, for example. Excellent question, and for that we will have a "5% Out Of The Box" standard offering where 5% of all the advertising will still play by the old rules, but, even then, will likely be more relevant than today because of the demographic consumer profiles logged in the Registry.

We could have "elective" categories for consumers to check like "Funny Ads" or "Emotional Ads" or "Award Winning Ads" for the ad junkies (they are out there). All of which will reward the advertisers who make great advertising with added exposure. One of my Ideasicle Experts, upon hearing me bat this idea around, suggested that we create a voting poll on the NARC site, or even on the remote control itself, for users to flag their favorite ads, making the ads served in these elective categories user-generated. Direct postings of TV ads to Facebook wouldn't be far behind that - straight from the remote control and, boom, the ad on TV is posted to your Facebook page.

By the way, people are more likely to share content that is relevant to them, so this Registry will increase the chances of this social "secondary market" for our advertising. But, again, only if it's good advertising.

Self-selecting consumer-relevance floats all boats.

If we created something like this Registry, consumers will get relevant advertising that is, by definition, actionable and helpful. Advertisers get guaranteed relevance, too, with the odds greatly decreasing that their ads will get "Auto Hopped." Content distributors will get happier advertisers and empowered consumers. And content creators will continue to get funded.

Who knows, maybe this Registry could could go beyond TV and work for print, digital, direct marketing, and other media, too. If we're going to do this, let's do this.

Am I dreaming? Maybe. I admit there are plenty of unanswered questions. Who would run this Registry, for starters. Would there be an expensive "opt out" for consumers who want zero advertising? How would we phase this new world view in over time? Etc.

But Dish started it. And they're the ones who pulled the plug in our boat.