What is Digg?72 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+27So they're just have five times as many commercial breaks? USA and some of those stations have so many commercials and breaks that the average movie that would take up a two hour slot on another network take up a three hour slot on theirs.
It's still a joke. In many other countries, commercials run at the beginning or end of a show ONLY. Then again, who cares? I have a DVR so I am able to skip the 20 minutes of commercials that run every hour. Maybe the television execs call me a thief for skipping commercials, but if I can recover 33% of my time by skipping them, then they can call me whatever the hell they like. - craigtheguru, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13Not if you program your TiVo to have the 60 second skip forward button. ;)
- KineticFlow, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I always thought, when I pay ten bucks to watch a movie, do I really have to watch commercials before the movie starts? If the ticket says 7:00, it should start at 7:00, not at 7:20 after commercials and random guy coming in to remind us to turn of cellphones.
Same goes for cable. - loup, on 10/12/2007, -1/+417 minutes of ads in an hour show, it's amazing. Go get yourself a copy of a show like Star Trek from the mid-sixties, the average was what, 7 to 9 minutes of commercials, maybe charging a bit more for commercial air time and cutting back the number of commercials would help to keep the viewer happier and less likely to just skip past the commercials
- anvilon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5They should just go all the way to Blipverts, they're only "20 minutes into the future".
- dcipjr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Fox won't be doing this for 24. How could any of the characters use the bathroom?
- liquidizer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Actually, with the product placement in films, you probably do see adverts at least that often in the blockbusters.
- Matrixsjd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3now I only have to 30 second skip ahead twice on my Tivo, sweet lol but I'm sure they'll just add many more short breaks, which sucks.....
- L0phtpDK, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3pinnette: No... there are commercials. How do you think ilovebees started?
http://xbox.ign.com/articles/533/533929p1.html - livestradamus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4TV? Who needs it?
Aside from live sporting events, what good is it? IMO, these days a PC w/ broadband, DVD, burner is all thats needed! I haven't watched tv in 2 yrs- no joke!
Wow that even shocked me to type it.. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well, you got it half right. It makes you not flip the channel as often. THAT is why they do it. They interrupt your program far more often, making it harder to really get into it. However, you also don't have the time to find something better on another channel.
If a show is written well enough that a longer break will not hurt the flow of the program, I would rather have that than have even a short break 5 times during a half hour. - HappyScrappy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Zik Zak! Zik Zak!
- GliTCH82, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Beyond TV is good isn't it? I have one server and 2 link licenses, I'm amazed at how I can stream a recorded show over WiFi to my laptop and my bro can watch another on his PC, all while the server is recording a third.
Show me a TiVo that can do that! - OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3If they're going to bombard you with commercials, you shouldn't have to PAY for cable.
- Mongoose, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3This would be great. I hardly ever watch TV anymore partly because there's so many damn commercials. But, would this just mean that there'd be more short commercial breaks as opposed to fewer long ones?
- mockingbirdq, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Man I wish someone would get around to resurrecting Max Headroom. Blipverts was absolutely the first thing to pop into my mind when I saw this.
- RubberbandLN6, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Try Beyond TV, all you need to do with smartskip is one click and you are past all the commercials.
- bchow, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2For me, this will be irrelevant.
On my TiVo-like box I have a skip 10 seconds, skip 30 seconds and skip 3 minutes button for
both directions. With this I can skip boring parts of the broadcast - no matter if they are commercials or
just parts of the show - in a fly. Skipping an ad break takes under a second. Click,click,click - oh - too far, Click.
Done.
Commercial TV is dead. - flamingmb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I went to a movie theatre (very small, one screen) that showed old old cartoons before the movie instead of commercials, you wouldnt beleive how much better it was. I really didnt think it was going to be very different until I didnt have to watch the coca-cola, church, and stupid music commercials before movies.
- scotticus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Clearly you're mad because your favorite show was cancelled.
Of course they're doing it for themselves, and the reason is MORE EFFECTIVE ADS MAKE MORE MONEY.
Since the 5th ad in a 10 ad commercial break doesn't get watched (because that's when I pee or pour myself another glass of wine) it makes more sense to the advertiser to sandwich their ads in content, not more ads.
If fewer, more effective ads make more money, (and we're being given the opportunity to vote with our wallets here ) maybe other networks will follow suit with fewer, yet more expensive ads. Although the channel surfing aspect is real, I think this is much more a product of trying to sell ads... if you have a ***** network with no ratings, you need a hook to be able to get people to advertise with you, and something like this might be enough to get new ad revenue.
Ads aren't going away. Ever. Unless you're willing to pay for content to be ad free (or if you steal). - applebyte, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1NBC/Universal actually already do this on Universal HD channel. I was watching season 2 of BSG on HDTV and noticed they did three 1-minute breaks and one 2.5-minute break for commercials. A 1-minute commercial is short enough so that it isn't really worth channel flipping and possibly missing the beginning of the next segment. Also, having an entire commercial break dedicated to a single advertiser makes the ad more effective and memorable. I can see this becoming the norm on network channels as DVR's become more prevalant.
- sastian, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3EX exx, ex, eex, ex, a, a, ac exac ex actly what I was thinking! [bad max headrom impersonation]
Blipverts!, (until someones head blows up like in scanners.) - loup, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I still go to movies, but pretty much only to this one little theater that doesn't run commercials and only runs 2 or 3 previews before the movie, and most of that is actually run before the movie start time, the movies always start within about 5 minutes of the posted start time.
- rm999, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4in a lot of other countries tv isn't as good as american tv. Not that american tv is very good though...
- jo42, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Ads:
The #1 reason people download TV shows. - spongbros, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I'd rather have two regular ad breaks in a half hour than 7 little ones.
Besides, if you don't like the ads, and don't have a PVR (like me), just leave the room for a few minutes. Get a drink, or use the bathroom or something. Don't be afraid to turn of the television when a particularly annoying advert appears, either. - jayf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1This is how things are in Japan. Many CM breaks but each break is 30s-1m long.
But Japanese CMs are quite entertaining so people here don't mind.
I can't imagine being inundated with plain CMs that often. - shiftless, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I'll see the ads sometimes anyway. It's the repetition of the ads that get to me, which is why DVRs are so useful. Commercials are sometimes funny, creative and different and others are just loud, annoying and obnoxious.
- the_penguin_boy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Okay, did anyone else immediately think blipverts?
- SubFuze, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I wondered why MTV didn't do this years ago. their format is perfect for this type of commercial break (their programming is naturally divided into 3-minute chunks (or at least it was when they showed videos - those are only on what is it this week? MTV X? MTV Hits? Whatever, I don't even watch the dumb things anymore)). To do this on regular broadcast TV makes sense with the popularity of DVRs - I don't think it will make for a much worse viewing experience and it just puts us one step closer to Truman Show style ads... I really like the two-tiered approach of having a free ad-supported version of the shows and a paid no-ad version (ie- iTunes). Just work out the distribution kinks (allow the shows to be viewed at the same time in both mediums) and everyone would be happy...
- sastian, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1yup, you just gotta be old enough to remember that crap
- mbiesz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Who cares about speed advertising? Now, when they start advertising speed, call me back.
- fishmasta, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I've noticed CBS having shorter, but more frequent breaks during some of their sitcoms. It actually does make it seem slightly less intrusive, or at least make me not flip the channel as often.
- olego, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Heh, and there I was thinking that they'll try advertising Speed and seeing if anyone notices. I was confused. :-)
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"Now all we need is the elimination of commercial ads before movies at the local theaters."
No doubt, that's why I stopped going to the movies. I am not paying 10 bucks to watch your stupid commercials (not counting product placement of course). - skillet2extreme, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I think this is a great idea. I've been living in the Germany for the past 8 months and have gotten used to this system of doing commercials, where they play before and after the show, and sometimes 1 or 2 times during the running time of the show. Channels even play a short 2 or 3 sec. video (usually during a football game), letting the viewer know, here come the ads. But the beauty thing is, you get to watch the program you want without breaks every 5 min. I don't think people mind ads so much, it's the every 5 minute unnecessary interruption of the show that becomes annoying.
- bndocksnt, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3@ djerrid, obviously it is an effort to combat dvr's, the article says as much. now, where would you like your captain obvious sticker?
- tidejwe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I'd rather have commercials than have to pay for it (speaking of local networks, not cable channels). Having commercials for shorter periods of time will be more likely to have people watch them instead of running out to do something during the "break". If the break is short, people will stay and watch and make more of a difference. I think it's a smart social engineering technique. Granted we'll have them more often, but it's smart for the network, even if more annoying for us because the break's now too short to do anything, and too long to not be annoyed.
- GliTCH82, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yeah and why can't they do that in TV shows instead of interrupting my imagination
- kday, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I can't watch T.V. anymore because the commercials are unbearable. I really wish I could watch T.V., but I just can't. The only thing I really ever watch is WEC cagefighting on HDNET (best show and bloodiest fighting ever, and in HD!). I can't even watch TV with a DVR, because our DVR (like most) does not automatically skip commercials. I really don't like having to hold the remote like it's my baby and hit the fastforward button every 5 minutes. It's almost as inconvenient as having to sit through the commercials.
The U.S. television advertising model needs to change. How much longer are people going to put up with this crap? - GliTCH82, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1koshak:
That's not true actually, I can que a download for a whole season in about 20 seconds, go do something productive and the next day have about 20 hours of television ready to watch without burning
It's also commercial free thanks to nerds like me - GliTCH82, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1*rim shot*
- rfunches, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1NBC is in big trouble in the ratings business (which impacts their ad rates). They've slipped to third and are struggling to find a plate of shows that will bring the viewers back. It sounds like Zucker & Co. are getting desperate and willing to take a huge revenue hit, right?
Wrong. WSJ reported this story, and the reporter correctly pointed out that if the idea that shorter ads make them more memorable to viewers, the networks could justify higher ad rates. So the base ad rate for shows with the "short" commercial breaks is now higher. If a ratings king like Cheers or Friends arrives on NBC, they could demand even more money than they did for ad spots during those shows, first because it's during a high-rated show, and second because the viewer is more likely to remember 2 ads than 5-10 ads. - offline, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0An Australian network tried this style last year and even had a small notice at the start that had images of coffee, walking and the like with a cross through them saying something such as "don't go away - we will be back in sixty seconds". That seemed to last a few months before it suddenly stopped so I guess it didn't work as expected.
Just for a side note, the frequency of commercials did not go up with this structure so they don't simply make up for it by playing more breaks. Saying all that, they certainly made up (and still do) for it with the amount of "banner" advertising during a show where it will have a box at the bottom (usually animated) complete with an upcoming show (I assume that is the same as advertisers use world wide).
It will be interesting to see how it goes with a larger US network such as NBC - hopefully it will end up with us viewers being the winners... although I highly doubt that. - Chewie67, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Great start. Now how about 10 second ads, instead of 1 minute?
I'm sure I could get the message "Buy Coke, Not Pepsi" in less than 10 seconds, and it doesn't take a Jessica Simpson or Tiger Woods to explain it. Show the logo, move on. - danpsmith, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Our corporate masters have been very upset that we have a way around watching all of their required commercials with DVR. This is a simple way around it. Advertising is the only thing that seems to constantly expand in this country besides waist bands and deficits (private and public). They have ads in movies you paid for at a theater, movies you paid for at the store, movies you paid to rent, TV shows you paid to watch, internet games you paid to play. I'm just waiting for the day where they strap you down to a chair and foce you to watch advertisements like Clockwork Orange. It's all to subvert you and make you obsessed with buying a bunch of ***** you don't need and make you not pay attention to how badly you are getting ***** up the ass by the man behind the curtain everyday.
REGARDS! - miaow, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1speed ads are far better. the knowledge that the ads will be on for minutes is demoralizing. with speed ads you know it will be over in seconds. they also seem to integrate with the show better, which likely has a better effect subconsciously.
- sailor420, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Anyone who thinks the commercial breaks in the US are too long has never been to Europe. The commercial breaks there are almost always about 7 minutes long--though they have less of them. I must say, I do like this system better though; you actually have enough time to go do something in the commercial break.
- mark1372, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1They've tried this on a few of the Canadian specialty channels during some movied and it is unbelievably annoying and intrusive. It's like getting smacked in the face when you don't expect it. You'll be engrossed in the film, and then every few minutes :30 COMMERCIAL WITHOUT WARNING and then immediately back the the movie. Ooooh, it bugged me so much that I had to stop watching.
- seanm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I don't like the sounds of this. I'd much rather have two or three long commercial breaks instead of eight shorter ones.
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