Of course I can, but it means I have to do it every time I return to the channel page. It gets very annoying. I don't think the fact that it takes time to turn it off is a very good argument. If I want to watch it I'll just take that same second and press the play button.
But I don't really want to continue the argument. I guess if it doesn't annoy anyone else he should leave it up. But I know every channel with an auto play annoys the hell out of me.