more ads than content lately

[Bob Glenn]

We were watching TV the other night and it seemed there was almost as many ads as programing so I started timing ads versus programing on the History Channel. It came out to about five minutes of program to four minutes of advertising. Being a Saturday, I thought I would switch over and watch college football. There were seven or eight games on different channels and I started going through the channels to find out which games were being televised. As I scrolled through the channels at any given time it over half the football channels had ads running instead of the game.

Then I got the most recent copy of PWW magazine and was disappointed to see so much advertising in the issue. I started opening all the pages of the magazine and accually counted more bi-folds with advertising than content. I was going to cancel my subscription until they offered a free gift subscription for a friend if I kept up my subscription.

We installed an answering machine on our landline a few years ago and finally set it to record after two rings to minimize the sales calls getting through. That worked pretty good, but we finally cancelled that service due to increasing costs. A news report the other night said next year over fifty percent of telephone calls we receive will be spam or scams.

Growing up, there were TV commercials on the hour, the half hour and the quarter hours and TV was free. The shows were better and you didn't have to pay for TV channels that were trying to sell stuff 24/7.

I guess I'm just getting to be an old codger, but this is totally out of control. Maybe I should just give up and spend more time in the shop.

[glenn bradley]

Once upon a time you paid for TV without commercials. It made sense. You didn't need commercials because everyone was already paying. Then cable started adding commercials. The sodden sheep that we are, we failed to raise a cry and cancel subscriptions so, it became the norm. Now you can pay your cabel provider MORE to watch some things without commercials. Anyone see a pattern here?

[Andrew Gibson]

When my wife and I bought our house 4 years ago we decided that we could not afford $100+ for cable every month. Instead we have internet, Netflix, and Hulu. We pay the additional few dollars a month not to have commercials on hulu. I have a garage full of tools and enough projects to to keep me busy for a decade if I quit my job and worked on them full time. I go over to friends houses to watch sporting events on occasion and just get annoyed by the commercials. By the way my wife and I are in our 30s. If you drop cable you will miss it for about 3 weeks, just like quitting any other bad habit.
Next on my chopping block is FB. We had a landline for a couple years because we got it for free with out internet service, but we never made a single call so we told them to cancel it. Our internet provider said but it is free! My response was it is not worth what we are paying for it. I don't think he got the joke.

Amazon figured out how to get people to pay for Free Shipping and brag about it. They call it "prime"

[Simon MacGowen]

I guess I'm just getting to be an old codger, but this is totally out of control. Maybe I should just give up and spend more time in the shop.

I have cut my cable, stopped the newspaper, installed the ad block, almost cut my landline (until the provider offered me one free year service which is due in 4 months), use a free email account (which I check once in a few weeks) for all emails except a few (family, etc.), never answer the door (all deliveries are monitored with tracking sent to my email and my neighbors know to text or call ahead), and never answer my cell unless the caller ID is shown -- no exception 100% there.

Yes, you are right. The intrusion is getting out of control. A user of Facebook, instagram etc.? Over my dead body.

They don't know it, but the over-aggressive ads and attempts to reach their customers are killing themselves.

Simon

[Ole Anderson]

We watch almost all of our programs on the DVR. We start watching 20 minutes after it starts, skip over the commercials and it works out just about right. Ever notice network one hour program repeats on Netflix are usually 42 minutes? There is a lot of good content on the TV now, even more that is terrible, at least to me, but obviously not to many others. TV shows (network or cable) with poor viewership simply don't survive. 18 minutes of advertising per hour on most networks during prime time. Programming is not cheap and someone has to pay for it. $157 billion in revenue in the USA, most of which is offset by costs. Hmm, $157 b/350m = about $450/person.

[Vincent Tai]

Not to mention the Native Advertising stuff which is absolutely a problem, and crazy sponsorship on youtube, instagram, fb etc. The latter actually seems to work for companies so they keep up at it and its not like the regulation is being enforced so things get murky. I still use Youtube and Instagram quite a bit, probably much more than most people. Lot's of good stuff and people on both platforms still. Easy enough for my well trained fingers to swipe or skip past sponsorship stuff, ad block I caved in and got this year.

[John K Jordan]

I don't get the least bit irritated by commercials on TV. I simply don't watch TV and haven't for over a decade. I haven't missed it yet.

My wife watches cooking and murder shows (probably to figure out how to get rid of me.) She only watches recordings on a DVR and fast forwards through commercials. I suspect some day the cable TV DVR makers will make a deal with the advertisers to disable FF during commercials.

JKJ

[Mel Fulks]

I remember watching films on TV. Toward the end of the story the commercial time increased and it could take an hour to
to see the few minutes left. That really ruins a fine film.

[Simon MacGowen]

I remember watching films on TV. Toward the end of the story the commercial time increased and it could take an hour to
to see the few minutes left. That really ruins a fine film.

Ha! That did ring a bell! And often, the last few minutes turned out to be a disappointment too, considering the time waste watching the "hour-long" commercial.

Simon

[Roy Petersen]

She only watches recordings on a DVR and fast forwards through commercials.
Literally the only way it's at all watchable, and how we do it here. So mind numbingly distracting to watch it "live".

I suspect some day the cable TV DVR makers will make a deal with the advertisers to disable FF during commercials.
That will be the day I finally stop watching altogether.
Ads are a menace, and they're growing each day to be more and more invasive. I use an ad blocker on most sites (some that I'd unblocked as a courtesy and now back on the list), and on one that complained about it's use, I looked at the number it blocked: 169. On one page. No joking there.

[Bill Orbine]

I known of two hour movies shown on one channel made into a three hour movies on other channels. Same movies, same contents but more commercials. I don't watch that channel anymore.

[Tom Stenzel]

... A news report the other night said next year over fifty percent of telephone calls we receive will be spam or scams.

.....

I guess I'm just getting to be an old codger, ...

I don't need a news report to know that. My land line is over fifty percent now. My cell gets two spam calls a day. Sometimes that's over fifty percent of my daily calls, sometimes less. If I don't recognize the number it doesn't get answered.

And what's this GETTING to be an old codger? I'm an old codger and proud of it! If you don't like it I'll shake my cane at you, ya wippersnapper!:p

-Tom

[Lee Schierer]

And now the sports networks have determined that folks fast forward through the commercials so they are now going to split screens so they can advertise while the game is playing and sports announcers and players are doing soap commercials during the event.

[Roy Petersen]

And now the sports networks have determined that folks fast forward through the commercials so they are now going to split screens so they can advertise while the game is playing and sports announcers and players are doing soap commercials during the event.
No chance I'd sit through that, even if I really enjoyed sports broadcasts (I don't). I'd not be at all surprised if other stations and shows started it. I know one we watch has ads for the vehicle being used mixed right in. He goes places and comments about how handy this or that feature is, and it's simple to tell it's an ad, but ignorable, mostly. Split screen? No way that's going to work for me.

[Bob Glenn]

Good on ya Tom!

[Curt Harms]

My wife watches cooking and murder shows (probably to figure out how to get rid of me.) She only watches recordings on a DVR and fast forwards through commercials. I suspect some day the cable TV DVR makers will make a deal with the advertisers to disable FF during commercials.

JKJ

I wouldn't be too concerned until I notice that she's taking notes.:D. Don't movie discs (DVD/BluRay) already disable fast forwarding through the coming attractions portion at the beginning?

[Lee DeRaud]

One data point to the contrary: F1 races used to be carried on Velocity Channel (formerly SpeedTV) with the usual quantity of ads. This year, they're showing up on ESPN2, with production by some UK outfit...zero ads.

(I still DVR them, since they come on at zero-dark-thirty here, and have been known to FF over safety-car intervals and some of the boring bits between pit stops on tracks that have little overtaking.)

[Keith Westfall]

How about going to the movies and pay a terrible rate to get in, then a worse terrible cost of popcorn and such, AND THEN you have to sit there and watch ads!!

I've complained numerous times but I guess the only way to effectively protest is with the wallet...

[Rick Potter]

Sorry to inform you Lee, but Velocity channel (nee Speed TV) became Motor Trend TV a couple days ago.

Add me to the ones who don't watch anything without it being pre-recorded so I can skip ads.

[Lee DeRaud]

Sorry to inform you Lee, but Velocity channel (nee Speed TV) became Motor Trend TV a couple days ago.Already? I thought that was scheduled for the 28th...then again, I've been FF'ing over the ads. :)

[Mark Patoka]

My wife watches cooking and murder shows (probably to figure out how to get rid of me.) She only watches recordings on a DVR and fast forwards through commercials. I suspect some day the cable TV DVR makers will make a deal with the advertisers to disable FF during commercials.

JKJ

The movie Fried Green Tomatoes mixes these two elements perfectly :)

[Jim Koepke]

Don't movie discs (DVD/BluRay) already disable fast forwarding through the coming attractions portion at the beginning?

They try, but there are ways of getting past them. Try the >> or jump scene button.


I suspect some day the cable TV DVR makers will make a deal with the advertisers to disable FF during commercials.

Or maybe someday advertisers will figure out how to make a commercial memorable even though it is being viewed at fast forward speed.

After seeing this thread my observation is that many programs 'back load' commercials. In other words there are not as many commercials at the beginning of a program but when it gets to the end, there are loads of commercials. In the early days of TV almost every program had a commercial break at the end followed by a minute or less pertaining to the program followed by another commercial break before the start of the next program.

With many "in the moment" program like news and sports, there is often an unbroken segment for the first 15 minutes to half hour. With advertising being 15-20 minutes per hour of programming that means the last half hour of program content is 50% commercials or more.

We pay a lot to get this content into our homes via cable or receiver fees, then we pay again by having to fast forward through the commercials if we remember to record ahead of time.

jtk

[Art Mann]

I am happy to pay Netflix, Vudu and Amazon Prime to provide programming with no ads. I haven't had cable TV in many years but I did rig up an antenna a while back so I could watch the dozen or so local broadcast stations. I couldn't stand to watch them even for free. I think it is only a question of time until TV networks will all die and I won't be the least unhappy about it.

[Kory Cassel]

I am happy to pay Netflix, Vudu and Amazon Prime to provide programming with no ads. I haven't had cable TV in many years but I did rig up an antenna a while back so I could watch the dozen or so local broadcast stations. I couldn't stand to watch them even for free. I think it is only a question of time until TV networks will all die and I won't be the least unhappy about it.
+1 it's trying enough to sit through the amount of ads necessary to get the morning's local weather forecast

[Curt Harms]

+1 it's trying enough to sit through the amount of ads necessary to get the morning's local weather forecast

The weather channel and Accuweather both have web sites. ;)

[Kory Cassel]

The weather channel and Accuweather both have web sites. ;)
Well there it is. Gather your torches and pitchforks, DEATH TO THE NETWORKS!

[emili ladjet]

Unfortunately if you want to watch something for free, you have to look at the ADS

[Roy Petersen]

The weather channel and Accuweather both have web sites. ;)
Both of those also have ads. ;)

Unfortunately if you want to watch something for free, you have to look at the ADS
I pay for cable, and yet there's ads on many of the channels. I'm not watching for free. ;)