Time Warner is preparing to test a new free service that will give both viewers and advertisers more control over their TVs. From the consumer side, Time Warner's "Look Back" service is something more than video on demand, but something less than a personal video recorder. From an advertising perspective, this could be the future.

Here's how it works. You can watch pretty much any show on demand the same day it airs, up until midnight. Two of your favorite programs are on against one another? No problem. Watch one live, and watch the next right after. Of course, if those two shows are on at 11PM, you're out of luck, but that's beside the point. Or is it?