10 ms·

Cable networks are speeding up TV shows to cram in ads

82 points by prostoalex 8y ago

scarface74 8y ago
Besides sports, I don’t see why anyone watches live TV on a schedule in 2018 when both a DVR and on demand is a thing - even if you do have a cable subscription or an OTA service like Sling and DirecTV. If I recall correctly from my time having Comcast, they don’t show commercials when you watch on demand after three days. I think it has something to do with ratings only count live + 3 days.
taneq 8y ago
I'm still boggled by the fact that people pay for cable TV service and then accept ads at all, let alone ads at the cost of messing with the actual content.
- michaelt 8y ago
  If you imagine you escape ads when you pay for content, you're going to be disappointed. Even Netflix does paid product placement in 74% of its original series [1] [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-hulu-netflix-driving-product-placement-deals-2018-6?IR=T https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-hulu-netflix-driving-...
  - dantheman 8y ago
    Product placement can vary in how intrusive it is. Reese's Pieces in ET is an example of good product placement. It's when it's obvious that it's a problem -- holding on the logo of a laptop, etc. If a character has to eat, drive, or use some real object -- you might as well use a real one and get paid instead of having to create a fake one.
    - ArekDymalski 8y ago
      >Product placement can vary in how intrusive it is. Reese's Pieces in ET is an example of good product placement. Another great example is Hello Kitty in "Ant-Man and The Wasp". IMHO, it's a real masterpiece - several seconds of pure focus on the product in slow-motion. And people love the scene, becuase it's surprising, funny and well woven into whole sequence. Here's the relevant fragment of the trailer if you're interested: https://youtu.be/RPUH-FlVCPc?t=1m34s https://youtu.be/RPUH-FlVCPc?t=1m34s
  - oblio 8y ago
    That's different. It's waaaay less disruptive to see a Toyota logo in the background than to stop the whole show for 5 minutes or show those awful pop-over ads.
    - Cthulhu_ 8y ago
      There was one scene in errr, Designated Survival where they made a very overt show to display a BMW remote start function (via smartphone). It didn't even have any practical use for the episode, the dude just stood a few feet outside his car to start it with his smartphone because ???????
    - gaius 8y ago
      There’s an episode of CSI Miami where someone says let’s have a video conference and someone else asks but is it secure and Horatio looks right at the camera and says of course it’s secure, it’s Cisco.
      - mrhappyunhappy 8y ago
        Cringe.
      - dave7 8y ago
        My favourite is CSI New York - "I'll create a GUI Interface using Visual Basic, see if I can track an IP address" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU
        genericid 8y ago
        Do you think that was product placement?
    - dpcx 8y ago
      It's definitely interesting reading my sibling comments - their complaint is that there are product logos in the shot of the program that is being watched. I have only anecdotal evidence, and it's not even recorded evidence, but I'd wager that the vast majority of these product placement shots take 30s or less from the entire program (often 30m or more). Personally, and of course this is just my opinion, but I would absolutely take product placement shots (even of the variety given by my sibling comments) over 2m of commercials every 10 minutes in the show.
  - daeken 8y ago
    I don't mind product placement, so long as it doesn't take away from my suspension of disbelief. In general, I just don't mind ads; I mind terrible and intrusive ads, which traditional commercials absolutely are.
  - zaarn 8y ago
    Product placement, if well executed, is much less intrusive than ad spots. An ad spot interrupts the story and flow of whatever you're watching while you won't even notice a well placed product (Stranger Things Waffles, for example, are a rather good product placement)
    - marmot777 8y ago
      Exactly. The more unintrusive the better. Frankly, I'd rather have subtle, subliminal messaging then to be interrupted by an advertisement. Youtube interrupts with ads whereas I believe they used to front load the ads at the beginnng. I'd be way more inclined to respond favoribly to an ad for which I don't already have a negative association: breaking the flow of something I'm already watching. I can't imagine anyone getting interrupted then buying the product who's advertising just abruptly interrupted something. I wonder how the analytics work on ads meaning what do they consider a success? Just that the ad played? Some action by the user?
      - zaarn 8y ago
        Frontloading is still a bit annoying IMO but much better than interruptions. If it needs to be a spot ad or sponsorship shoutout then it should IMO be at the end. Lots of youtubers do that and I usually already tuned out when it gets to that point so it'll only hit interested people.
      - JadeNB 8y ago
        > Youtube interrupts with ads whereas I believe they used to front load the ads at the beginnng. I'd be way more inclined to respond favoribly to an ad for which I don't already have a negative association: breaking the flow of something I'm already watching. Just like web browsing after ad blocking as compared to before, I've found that using youtube-dl (https://youtube-dl.org https://youtube-dl.org) just a few times has made me way less patient with this junk whenever I accidentally navigate to the official site. > I can't imagine anyone getting interrupted then buying the product who's advertising just abruptly interrupted something. I wonder how the analytics work on ads meaning what do they consider a success? Just that the ad played? Some action by the user? My impression has always been that there is almost no visible penalty for failure in advertising—you can't easily track the people who didn't buy your product because of an irritating ad—that even what must be the tiny success rate is deemed worth the investment. (I think that also advertisers are in the same boat, relative to this, as consumers are: we want our products cheap, and manufacturers would rather keep them apparently cheap by loading hidden costs (like data gathering and advertising) on us than actually charge us what they're work; and advertisers, presumably, want their ads to work, so the networks would rather use whatever extreme and scummy trick is available if it appears to give them a short-term advantage over other networks than acknowledge the ineffectiveness of that technique.)
  - marmot777 8y ago
    I find the auto play of the promotional video that's always at the top of Netflix to be super annoying; however, once I'm watching something, advertising's unobtrusive. I'd rather have product placement than interruption marketing.
  - chunkyslink 8y ago
    The BBC does not run intrusive ads. Product placement is not intrusive at all.
    - deadbunny 8y ago
      The BBC is funded via the TV License, they're not a commercial broadcaster.
    - lotsofpulp 8y ago
      Some examples of intrusive product placement: https://youtu.be/oQYwFND7rHE https://youtu.be/oQYwFND7rHE https://youtu.be/ca6W7peL6s4 https://youtu.be/ca6W7peL6s4 https://youtu.be/J8T2kZ8f6BA https://youtu.be/J8T2kZ8f6BA Especially bad when they make a character say or do something that doesn’t fit with their persona to shoehorn mention of a brand. Maybe it’s me getting older, but I can’t help but notice product placement, speeding up of shows, Netflix doing the opposite by stretching out shows with useless filler scenes, story arcs introducing unnecessary and tacked on side plots to increase # of seasons, extra sexual and gore content to shock. It really ruins watching media for me. The last one I really liked was Breaking Bad I think.
      - thinkloop 8y ago
        > https://youtu.be/oQYwFND7rHE https://youtu.be/oQYwFND7rHE Wow, that's really pushing the definition of product "placement". That needs another term like "in-show commercial".
        icebraining 8y ago
        It's not the only one on that show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfHuZ5qrYX4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfHuZ5qrYX4
      - NeedMoreTea 8y ago
        Those examples should credit Ford and Subway as director. :) I'm the same. The Netflix version of Black Mirror loses so much impact from the addition of 20 mins of dead filler. Don't forget overly long and overblown fight and chase scenes that all movies must now have. They just bore me senseless. The first one I saw was fun, probably Blues Brothers, but even back then they were taking the mickey. Never the choreography and humour of Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan. Nowadays at home when a movie starts a fight against the hero, or the car (spaceship) chase I tend to do something else for 5. Breaking Bad was the best series to come out the US in ages. Even they lost the plot with the insanely long shootout with infinite ammo and insanely bad marksmanship. Thankfully that was a one off so very easy to forgive. :) Brit series go too far the other way and cram far too much into too few episodes. I've been enjoying Last Kingdom but boy are they spoiling it by cramming two books into every season, with fewer episodes per series compared to the US average.
- mrhappyunhappy 8y ago
  I remember days where there’s we’re no ads on cable tv as that was one of the selling points. Also used to be no ads in theatres. I can’t fathom why anyone would pay money to see ads. I’ve been cable free for a decade and could never go back. Won’t even if you pay me to. Nope.
- bachmeier 8y ago
  Actually, as the quality of service continues to decline, it will bring traditional cable TV to an end that much faster. For the most part, people don't accept this stuff, and they're rapidly moving away from it.
- verelo 8y ago
  This shocks me too. I’d at least like the option to turn off ads for an additional fee. No way will i pay and watch ads however!
- Shivetya 8y ago
  six of one, half dozen of another. It can add up pretty quick if you subscribe to more than a few streaming services and with many groups going their own way we might likely end up back with group providers. What makes the cable free work for us is that it felt odd in this day an age to have internet and cable as both are effectively a transport method. Why cannot the cable provider stream over my internet connection at a discounted rate? on a site note about speeding up shows, when watching most informational videos on youtube you can speed them up to 1.25 speed with no real loss in quality. some presenters are a bit long winded
- dazc 8y ago
  Amazon's ads for their own shows and services on Prime are becoming gradually more intrusive though. I wouldn't be surprised to see regular ad slots being introduced at some point in time?
- scarface74 8y ago
  When we lived in an apartment, we were required to pay $99 for an Internet + cable bundle with Comcast. It sucked so badly that one of the deciding factors when we bought a house was that AT&T Fiber was available. We also had every bedroom, the office, and the living room wired for gigabit Ethernet with the expectation that we would be using only internet based video services. Now, we have three Roku TVs and two 4K AppleTV boxes (thanks to DirecTVNow). We subscribe to Netflix (free with T-mobile), DirecTVNow, and Hulu. My dad came up and he loved our RokuTV so I bought him one. He likes it, but he would never go cable free. With cable, you just turn it on and start watching. With the Roku TV, you have to sign up for an account, add channels, login to all of your subscriptions. If you have cable, you have to login to all of the different channels with your cable subscription. WiFi is also more flakey then cable. Then on top of that, they have to worry about going over thier 400Gb cap. Can you imagine most 70+ year olds having to go through all of the hassle with five TVs? Heck, except for the RokuTV, all of thier TVs are CRTs, including one that I bought for myself when I moved out in the mid 90s.
  - maxerickson 8y ago
    Spectrum has "cable box in a browser" these days, so no need to fuss around with individual channels to watch on a computer. It's flash, not sure it would run on a Roku.
    - scarface74 8y ago
      The AppleTV experience is better. You sign in to your provider once, and other apps - with your permission - can use your cable login. The App Store will also suggest apps you are elibke for based on your cable package and which nes you can get if you upgrade your package. But, that’s a separate box and remote he would have to deal with.
  - Jyaif 8y ago
    I think most 70+ year olds do not have five TVs.
    - scarface74 8y ago
- legopelle 8y ago
  Two things shook me while watching TV on my USA trip. One is the sheer number of ad breaks in programming. Here in Sweden there's only a few with a good chunk in between. The second is ads during programs. I mean not even having the courtesy to pause but instead overimpose. I sort of get it now why USA import shows have the weird breaks though. Given, I seldom watch TV here anymore, so I might be mistaken.
  - mrfusion 8y ago
    I remember a scene on the simpsons where marge stopped mid conversation and got a broom and swept up all the ads on the bottom of the screen.
  - marmot777 8y ago
    There are millions of people who keep the TV running ALL THE TIME as in it's almost never turned off.
    - madengr 8y ago
      That’s insane. I can’t even think coherently with a TV in the background.
      - marmot777 8y ago
        Trying to understand on why phones are so dangerous combined with driving, now killing more people each year than drunks behind the wheel, research's been done showing people can't really multitask, only switch tasks rapidly. We end up doing a half assed job on everything, including being present for other people whether other drives whose life depends on you being sober and focused but also friends and relatives. I've seen countless parents focused on their phones not paying attention to their kids, which is really sad. It's craziness as people could be much more productive if they did one thing at a time. That said, people who have the television running all the time probably aren't seeking to optimize their productivity.
  - cptskippy 8y ago
    > I sort of get it now why USA import shows have the weird breaks though. That's a direct result of networks dictating the # of commercial breaks in the show. Watching a show like Battlestar Galactica is a bit odd because they liked to have dramatic little climaxes right before a commercial break.
- xstephen95x 8y ago
  in NYC, internet+cable and just internet were the exact same price, so..
- jpmattia 8y ago
  Some folks here may not be old enough to remember: Cable originally started without ads. The revenue stream proved to be too juicy to ignore. There's probably a prediction in there about Amazon/Netflix/etc.
bittermang 8y ago
TBS has been doing this for YEARS. They use every trick in the book, but messing with the timing of episodes is the most jarring. And frankly, ruins a lot of shows, comedy is all about timing after all.
- scarface74 8y ago
  It was even worse “Turner Time”, where they would start and end all shows 5 minutes pass the hour to make you miss the first 5 minutes of a show on another network to convince you to keep watching. https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1626/why-do-wtbs-shows-start-at-05-and/ https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1626/why-do-wtbs-s...
  - bittermang 8y ago
    Comedy Central is doing a similar but different thing. They're adding more commercials to a commercial break, so now a 30 minute block is like 34 minutes, creating a weird stagger in the schedule. MTV does this too, but they play catch up on the occasional episode by cutting out the intro completely, and their schedule stays on the half hour. Both are Viacom networks.
Phantasmagoria 8y ago
I was killing time one day at a friends house and watched Die Hard with commercials. The running time is 2h12m. With commercials it took about 3 hours to watch. I stuck it out out of spite.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
massysett 8y ago
[2015]
ddtaylor 8y ago
What percentage do they speed it up?
- dannyw 8y ago
  7.5% for Seinfield.
- Jaruzel 8y ago
  Up to 9.0% now apparently. Working link to the Seinfeld example on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6i1VVikRu0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6i1VVikRu0
tjoener 8y ago
Reminds me the first time I watched a european version of lost. Being used to the show so much, I noticed the pitch of the intro sound was different. Then I realized PAL is 25fps vs NTSCs 23.976. I was surprised I could hear the difference at all
- radiowave 8y ago
  It was probably shot on film at 24fps, then a 3:2 frame sequence is applied to convert to 30fps, which is then slowed down to 29.97. This slowdown (known as a "pulldown" in the jargon) causes the drop in pitch of the audio. (Sometimes things are actually shot at 23.976, so that they can be sequenced straight into 29.97 without needing the pulldown, but I'm not sure how common this is). The other thing is that when converting to PAL, you have two choices - either apply a very complicated frame squence that I've long since forgotten all the details of, or just speed up the footage from 24fps (or 23.976) to 25fps, causing a raise in pitch. So it's quite possible that neither of the versions you watched were actually at true speed or pitch - the NTSC version could have been slow and the PAL version could have been fast.
- btbuilder 8y ago
  Pretty sure NTSC standard/transmission is actually 29.97. It was 30Hz when originally released in black and white and then some was dedicated to the color channel. 30fps (b&w NTSC) and 25fps (PAL) are derived from grid AC frequencies of 60Hz (NA) and 50Hz (most other countries). Kept the old-school electronics simple...
chrisper 8y ago
So happy to live in a country where downloading TV shows from the web is legal. No more annoying ads and restrictions.
- chriswait 8y ago
  Which country is that, out of interest?
  - chrisper 8y ago
    Switzerland. Our copyright law allows for private use of media. Software piracy, however, is not legal. Also upload is illegal as well.
- dmortin 8y ago
  Is uploading legal too? Because downloading is legal in other EU contries too, but uploading is not, so you can't use torrent to download, because that uploads too. So if uploading is not legal then you can't use torrent.
  - chrisper 8y ago
    Yeah. Uploading is not legal. That's why I use Usenet!
qrbLPHiKpiux 8y ago
Comparison video blocked, copywrite claim. Disagree. It’s fair use demonstrating allegations.
- Senderman 8y ago
  With automated processes for copyright claims becoming so common, fair use is really getting trampled on.
  - icebraining 8y ago
    Unfortunately fair use is merely a defence, not a right.
marmot777 8y ago
Since I 100% stopped watching regular TV, watching shows on netflix, etc., so that even a few minutes of regular TV drives me crazy. It's the frenetic ads, the toxicity of many of the shows, and god knows what else that's crazy making. Now I know that it's actually sped up. How could that not affect someone's mental health in some way even a subtle way?
- 0xcafecafe 8y ago
  Same here. In addition I can't stand the wild swings in volume. Baby sleeping in the other room so you set it to the lowest volume possible where you can hear. When it breaks into a commercial, the volume seems to increase by 50%
  - marmot777 8y ago
    Yeah, ads playing louder than the programming's been going on for decades. Also, it's worth noting that advertisers intentionally manipulate your emotions, including fear. That can't be healthy. I'd say unobtrusive ads in search results, at the beginning of videos, etc., can be good. I'd feel grateful of Youtube switched back to front loading the ads to the point where I'd probably go out of my way to pay attention to those ads.
    - thaumasiotes 8y ago
      > it's worth noting that advertisers intentionally manipulate your emotions, including fear. That can't be healthy. I don't know that "healthy" is the concern I'd have there. All television programming intentionally manipulates your emotions. That's why people watch it. The same goes for... all other forms of entertainment, without exception.
      - marmot777 8y ago
        Sure, but I don't want to feel a fear reaction from an ad as there's nothing else satisfying about it to make that fear worth it. If I watch a good movie and feel fear but, at the same time, I'm fully absorbed in the movie for 2 hours then I've gotten my money's worth. The fear helped me understand the characters better, perhaps. In good movies the manipulation's part of making the experience better, not an end in itself (unless it's a crappy movie or show).
rutthenut 8y ago
2015, not new news
Rjevski 8y ago
Isn't there anything that this cancer called advertising hasn't consumed yet?
imgabe 8y ago
Is anyone still watching network/cable TV?
- smelendez 8y ago
  Yes. And they are disproportionately heavy video consumers with indifference to how many ads they see.
  - smegger001 8y ago
    Or is the TV just left on while no one watches? I know I have been to relatives with Cable/Satalite and it gets left on all the time even if no one is watching. Netlfix Hulu Amazon (usually) eventually check to make sure you are still there to save bandwitdth/licening fees. Weirdly some shows on netflix don't seems to ask too play next episode having woken up 8 hours latter and a season or so farther than I was before.
ssttoo 8y ago
Well, isn’t that a standard practice in radio? The songs are a tad shorter and, as a result, a bit pitched up. Part of it is about ads, but mostly it’s about increasing the chance of you liking what you hear (more songs means maybe you’ll like one, at least) and not changing the station. If we can fit 11 songs in the space of 10, that’s a wider net. Why wouldn’t TV follow suit?
- usrusr 8y ago
  No need to speed up music, just fade it out early. Pop music has evolved to be structured in a way that not much will be lost, survival and success of the most radio-friendly. Few songs break that rule and those that do are either deliberately short or way too elaborate for radio anyways.
- jghjg 8y ago
  let me guess, you like american football and its 1 hour of ads and 10 minutes of play
- agumonkey 8y ago
  I wonder if radio in the 50s used this or if it's the result of change in market (probably due to TV too) that made them consolidate into simpler format and more ads. In which case it would be a metaphor for the faux-death of TV.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
lower 8y ago
Here in the EU (edit: at least in Germany), TV stations sometimes slow down their shows to cram in more ads. There are rules that there may be only one block of ads in a show of up to 45 minutes, two blocks in a show of up to 90 minutes, and three blocks in a show of up to 110 minutes. So, if the content is just under 90 minutes or so, stations will stretch it slightly, so that it comes above the limit.
- chunkyslink 8y ago
  Fancy that. The EU making some good laws to protect the consumer from the corporation. Lovely stuff.
  - close04 8y ago
    "The unbelievable reason republicans HATE the EU. Click here to watch this sped up video!" The EU tends to be more considerate of its citizens than "capitalism" would dictate. It's what gives it a bad reputation among republicans, especially those with very little understanding of the intricacies of a society. This being said the fact that stations are not forced to disclose this for every single show that is being showed other than "real time" is still a bummer. I don't watch TV though but I feel compelled to have an opinion about it :).
- Aaargh20318 8y ago
  Not sure if it’s a EU wide rule though. IIRC the rule in my country is just a maximum of 12 minutes per hour.
  - lower 8y ago
    This is for Germany. I assumed that it was EU-wide, but it may be like that in Germany only.
  - SimplyUnknown 8y ago
    Bear in mind that (in my country) this is averaged over a 24 hours. So you will see fewer commercials during daytime but a lot of commercials during primetime such that it averages to 12 minutes per hour.
kokey 8y ago
Read all about it on a news web site that confine the text to part of the page in order to cram in ads.
smelendez 8y ago
I'm sure ads are the primary reason, but 2018 audiences do expect faster paced shows. There's a reason the lede refers to Seinfeld getting funnier. Jokes that were cutting edge 20-30 years ago need less introduction now. The easiest way to cut that unnecessary intro is just to speed up the show.
- close04 8y ago
  I read "sounds funnier" as funny-strange not funny-haha. :) Another common practice years ago was simply to cut parts of a movie. They'd go to commercials and come back skipping a few scenes.
prestonpesek 8y ago
If they are this desperate, prepare for net neutrality to become more important. I’ve already started to experience delays in streaming speeds and reliability. Please call or write to your representative and express concern that your internet service provider has a clear incentive to inhibit the free flow of information to your home, and that you are deeply concerned about this.
marsrover 8y ago
This is pretty user hostile. Glad I don’t have cable anymore.
jyriand 8y ago
Probably that's why soccer is not popular in US. You can't interrupt soccer game for an ad. That's not the case with NFL, where you see an ad every time players stop playing.
- a_f 8y ago
  From my experience the US broadcasts of soccer do have a ad popover the playing game on some games; often over or in addition to the scoreboard. It is much like an animated banner that you would get on a website. It does not cover the entire screen; but it is still intrusive. Of course there is still exposure to the stadium side banners, and shirt sponsors as with all soccer games.
throwawaymanbot 8y ago
unbelievable. Then they wonder why no one watches their channels. 'Murican Capitalism!
mrfusion 8y ago
This is how the death spiral starts for cable.
kj4ips 8y ago
Does this mean that the networks are creating derivative works of the content they licensed, and then airing that? Especially if they are cutting out opening titles. Overlays and EAS have usually been acceptable, and composing the end titles with something else is a longstanding practice, but it doesn't actually modify the content directly.

82 points by prostoalex 8y ago

Besides sports, I don’t see why anyone watches live TV on a schedule in 2018 when both a DVR and on demand is a thing - even if you do have a cable subscription or an OTA service like Sling and DirecTV. If I recall correctly from my time having Comcast, they don’t show commercials when you watch on demand after three days. I think it has something to do with ratings only count live + 3 days.

taneq 8y ago

I'm still boggled by the fact that people pay for cable TV service and then accept ads at all, let alone ads at the cost of messing with the actual content.

michaelt 8y ago
If you imagine you escape ads when you pay for content, you're going to be disappointed. Even Netflix does paid product placement in 74% of its original series [1] [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-hulu-netflix-driving-product-placement-deals-2018-6?IR=T https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-hulu-netflix-driving-...
- dantheman 8y ago
  Product placement can vary in how intrusive it is. Reese's Pieces in ET is an example of good product placement. It's when it's obvious that it's a problem -- holding on the logo of a laptop, etc. If a character has to eat, drive, or use some real object -- you might as well use a real one and get paid instead of having to create a fake one.
  - ArekDymalski 8y ago
    >Product placement can vary in how intrusive it is. Reese's Pieces in ET is an example of good product placement. Another great example is Hello Kitty in "Ant-Man and The Wasp". IMHO, it's a real masterpiece - several seconds of pure focus on the product in slow-motion. And people love the scene, becuase it's surprising, funny and well woven into whole sequence. Here's the relevant fragment of the trailer if you're interested: https://youtu.be/RPUH-FlVCPc?t=1m34s https://youtu.be/RPUH-FlVCPc?t=1m34s
- oblio 8y ago
  That's different. It's waaaay less disruptive to see a Toyota logo in the background than to stop the whole show for 5 minutes or show those awful pop-over ads.
  - Cthulhu_ 8y ago
    There was one scene in errr, Designated Survival where they made a very overt show to display a BMW remote start function (via smartphone). It didn't even have any practical use for the episode, the dude just stood a few feet outside his car to start it with his smartphone because ???????
  - gaius 8y ago
    There’s an episode of CSI Miami where someone says let’s have a video conference and someone else asks but is it secure and Horatio looks right at the camera and says of course it’s secure, it’s Cisco.
    - mrhappyunhappy 8y ago
      Cringe.
    - dave7 8y ago
      My favourite is CSI New York - "I'll create a GUI Interface using Visual Basic, see if I can track an IP address" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU
      - genericid 8y ago
        Do you think that was product placement?
  - dpcx 8y ago
    It's definitely interesting reading my sibling comments - their complaint is that there are product logos in the shot of the program that is being watched. I have only anecdotal evidence, and it's not even recorded evidence, but I'd wager that the vast majority of these product placement shots take 30s or less from the entire program (often 30m or more). Personally, and of course this is just my opinion, but I would absolutely take product placement shots (even of the variety given by my sibling comments) over 2m of commercials every 10 minutes in the show.
- daeken 8y ago
  I don't mind product placement, so long as it doesn't take away from my suspension of disbelief. In general, I just don't mind ads; I mind terrible and intrusive ads, which traditional commercials absolutely are.
- zaarn 8y ago
  Product placement, if well executed, is much less intrusive than ad spots. An ad spot interrupts the story and flow of whatever you're watching while you won't even notice a well placed product (Stranger Things Waffles, for example, are a rather good product placement)
  - marmot777 8y ago
    Exactly. The more unintrusive the better. Frankly, I'd rather have subtle, subliminal messaging then to be interrupted by an advertisement. Youtube interrupts with ads whereas I believe they used to front load the ads at the beginnng. I'd be way more inclined to respond favoribly to an ad for which I don't already have a negative association: breaking the flow of something I'm already watching. I can't imagine anyone getting interrupted then buying the product who's advertising just abruptly interrupted something. I wonder how the analytics work on ads meaning what do they consider a success? Just that the ad played? Some action by the user?
    - zaarn 8y ago
      Frontloading is still a bit annoying IMO but much better than interruptions. If it needs to be a spot ad or sponsorship shoutout then it should IMO be at the end. Lots of youtubers do that and I usually already tuned out when it gets to that point so it'll only hit interested people.
    - JadeNB 8y ago
      > Youtube interrupts with ads whereas I believe they used to front load the ads at the beginnng. I'd be way more inclined to respond favoribly to an ad for which I don't already have a negative association: breaking the flow of something I'm already watching. Just like web browsing after ad blocking as compared to before, I've found that using youtube-dl (https://youtube-dl.org https://youtube-dl.org) just a few times has made me way less patient with this junk whenever I accidentally navigate to the official site. > I can't imagine anyone getting interrupted then buying the product who's advertising just abruptly interrupted something. I wonder how the analytics work on ads meaning what do they consider a success? Just that the ad played? Some action by the user? My impression has always been that there is almost no visible penalty for failure in advertising—you can't easily track the people who didn't buy your product because of an irritating ad—that even what must be the tiny success rate is deemed worth the investment. (I think that also advertisers are in the same boat, relative to this, as consumers are: we want our products cheap, and manufacturers would rather keep them apparently cheap by loading hidden costs (like data gathering and advertising) on us than actually charge us what they're work; and advertisers, presumably, want their ads to work, so the networks would rather use whatever extreme and scummy trick is available if it appears to give them a short-term advantage over other networks than acknowledge the ineffectiveness of that technique.)
- marmot777 8y ago
  I find the auto play of the promotional video that's always at the top of Netflix to be super annoying; however, once I'm watching something, advertising's unobtrusive. I'd rather have product placement than interruption marketing.
- chunkyslink 8y ago
  The BBC does not run intrusive ads. Product placement is not intrusive at all.
  - deadbunny 8y ago
    The BBC is funded via the TV License, they're not a commercial broadcaster.
  - lotsofpulp 8y ago
    Some examples of intrusive product placement: https://youtu.be/oQYwFND7rHE https://youtu.be/oQYwFND7rHE https://youtu.be/ca6W7peL6s4 https://youtu.be/ca6W7peL6s4 https://youtu.be/J8T2kZ8f6BA https://youtu.be/J8T2kZ8f6BA Especially bad when they make a character say or do something that doesn’t fit with their persona to shoehorn mention of a brand. Maybe it’s me getting older, but I can’t help but notice product placement, speeding up of shows, Netflix doing the opposite by stretching out shows with useless filler scenes, story arcs introducing unnecessary and tacked on side plots to increase # of seasons, extra sexual and gore content to shock. It really ruins watching media for me. The last one I really liked was Breaking Bad I think.
    - thinkloop 8y ago
      > https://youtu.be/oQYwFND7rHE https://youtu.be/oQYwFND7rHE Wow, that's really pushing the definition of product "placement". That needs another term like "in-show commercial".
      - icebraining 8y ago
        It's not the only one on that show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfHuZ5qrYX4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfHuZ5qrYX4
    - NeedMoreTea 8y ago
      Those examples should credit Ford and Subway as director. :) I'm the same. The Netflix version of Black Mirror loses so much impact from the addition of 20 mins of dead filler. Don't forget overly long and overblown fight and chase scenes that all movies must now have. They just bore me senseless. The first one I saw was fun, probably Blues Brothers, but even back then they were taking the mickey. Never the choreography and humour of Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan. Nowadays at home when a movie starts a fight against the hero, or the car (spaceship) chase I tend to do something else for 5. Breaking Bad was the best series to come out the US in ages. Even they lost the plot with the insanely long shootout with infinite ammo and insanely bad marksmanship. Thankfully that was a one off so very easy to forgive. :) Brit series go too far the other way and cram far too much into too few episodes. I've been enjoying Last Kingdom but boy are they spoiling it by cramming two books into every season, with fewer episodes per series compared to the US average.
mrhappyunhappy 8y ago
I remember days where there’s we’re no ads on cable tv as that was one of the selling points. Also used to be no ads in theatres. I can’t fathom why anyone would pay money to see ads. I’ve been cable free for a decade and could never go back. Won’t even if you pay me to. Nope.
bachmeier 8y ago
Actually, as the quality of service continues to decline, it will bring traditional cable TV to an end that much faster. For the most part, people don't accept this stuff, and they're rapidly moving away from it.
verelo 8y ago
This shocks me too. I’d at least like the option to turn off ads for an additional fee. No way will i pay and watch ads however!
Shivetya 8y ago
six of one, half dozen of another. It can add up pretty quick if you subscribe to more than a few streaming services and with many groups going their own way we might likely end up back with group providers. What makes the cable free work for us is that it felt odd in this day an age to have internet and cable as both are effectively a transport method. Why cannot the cable provider stream over my internet connection at a discounted rate? on a site note about speeding up shows, when watching most informational videos on youtube you can speed them up to 1.25 speed with no real loss in quality. some presenters are a bit long winded
dazc 8y ago
Amazon's ads for their own shows and services on Prime are becoming gradually more intrusive though. I wouldn't be surprised to see regular ad slots being introduced at some point in time?
scarface74 8y ago
When we lived in an apartment, we were required to pay $99 for an Internet + cable bundle with Comcast. It sucked so badly that one of the deciding factors when we bought a house was that AT&T Fiber was available. We also had every bedroom, the office, and the living room wired for gigabit Ethernet with the expectation that we would be using only internet based video services. Now, we have three Roku TVs and two 4K AppleTV boxes (thanks to DirecTVNow). We subscribe to Netflix (free with T-mobile), DirecTVNow, and Hulu. My dad came up and he loved our RokuTV so I bought him one. He likes it, but he would never go cable free. With cable, you just turn it on and start watching. With the Roku TV, you have to sign up for an account, add channels, login to all of your subscriptions. If you have cable, you have to login to all of the different channels with your cable subscription. WiFi is also more flakey then cable. Then on top of that, they have to worry about going over thier 400Gb cap. Can you imagine most 70+ year olds having to go through all of the hassle with five TVs? Heck, except for the RokuTV, all of thier TVs are CRTs, including one that I bought for myself when I moved out in the mid 90s.
- maxerickson 8y ago
  Spectrum has "cable box in a browser" these days, so no need to fuss around with individual channels to watch on a computer. It's flash, not sure it would run on a Roku.
  - scarface74 8y ago
    The AppleTV experience is better. You sign in to your provider once, and other apps - with your permission - can use your cable login. The App Store will also suggest apps you are elibke for based on your cable package and which nes you can get if you upgrade your package. But, that’s a separate box and remote he would have to deal with.
- Jyaif 8y ago
  I think most 70+ year olds do not have five TVs.
  - scarface74 8y ago
legopelle 8y ago
Two things shook me while watching TV on my USA trip. One is the sheer number of ad breaks in programming. Here in Sweden there's only a few with a good chunk in between. The second is ads during programs. I mean not even having the courtesy to pause but instead overimpose. I sort of get it now why USA import shows have the weird breaks though. Given, I seldom watch TV here anymore, so I might be mistaken.
- mrfusion 8y ago
  I remember a scene on the simpsons where marge stopped mid conversation and got a broom and swept up all the ads on the bottom of the screen.
- marmot777 8y ago
  There are millions of people who keep the TV running ALL THE TIME as in it's almost never turned off.
  - madengr 8y ago
    That’s insane. I can’t even think coherently with a TV in the background.
    - marmot777 8y ago
      Trying to understand on why phones are so dangerous combined with driving, now killing more people each year than drunks behind the wheel, research's been done showing people can't really multitask, only switch tasks rapidly. We end up doing a half assed job on everything, including being present for other people whether other drives whose life depends on you being sober and focused but also friends and relatives. I've seen countless parents focused on their phones not paying attention to their kids, which is really sad. It's craziness as people could be much more productive if they did one thing at a time. That said, people who have the television running all the time probably aren't seeking to optimize their productivity.
- cptskippy 8y ago
  > I sort of get it now why USA import shows have the weird breaks though. That's a direct result of networks dictating the # of commercial breaks in the show. Watching a show like Battlestar Galactica is a bit odd because they liked to have dramatic little climaxes right before a commercial break.
xstephen95x 8y ago
in NYC, internet+cable and just internet were the exact same price, so..
jpmattia 8y ago
Some folks here may not be old enough to remember: Cable originally started without ads. The revenue stream proved to be too juicy to ignore. There's probably a prediction in there about Amazon/Netflix/etc.

bittermang 8y ago

TBS has been doing this for YEARS. They use every trick in the book, but messing with the timing of episodes is the most jarring. And frankly, ruins a lot of shows, comedy is all about timing after all.

scarface74 8y ago
It was even worse “Turner Time”, where they would start and end all shows 5 minutes pass the hour to make you miss the first 5 minutes of a show on another network to convince you to keep watching. https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1626/why-do-wtbs-shows-start-at-05-and/ https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1626/why-do-wtbs-s...
- bittermang 8y ago
  Comedy Central is doing a similar but different thing. They're adding more commercials to a commercial break, so now a 30 minute block is like 34 minutes, creating a weird stagger in the schedule. MTV does this too, but they play catch up on the occasional episode by cutting out the intro completely, and their schedule stays on the half hour. Both are Viacom networks.

Phantasmagoria 8y ago

I was killing time one day at a friends house and watched Die Hard with commercials. The running time is 2h12m. With commercials it took about 3 hours to watch. I stuck it out out of spite.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

massysett 8y ago

[2015]

ddtaylor 8y ago

What percentage do they speed it up?

dannyw 8y ago
7.5% for Seinfield.
Jaruzel 8y ago
Up to 9.0% now apparently. Working link to the Seinfeld example on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6i1VVikRu0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6i1VVikRu0

tjoener 8y ago

Reminds me the first time I watched a european version of lost. Being used to the show so much, I noticed the pitch of the intro sound was different. Then I realized PAL is 25fps vs NTSCs 23.976. I was surprised I could hear the difference at all

radiowave 8y ago
It was probably shot on film at 24fps, then a 3:2 frame sequence is applied to convert to 30fps, which is then slowed down to 29.97. This slowdown (known as a "pulldown" in the jargon) causes the drop in pitch of the audio. (Sometimes things are actually shot at 23.976, so that they can be sequenced straight into 29.97 without needing the pulldown, but I'm not sure how common this is). The other thing is that when converting to PAL, you have two choices - either apply a very complicated frame squence that I've long since forgotten all the details of, or just speed up the footage from 24fps (or 23.976) to 25fps, causing a raise in pitch. So it's quite possible that neither of the versions you watched were actually at true speed or pitch - the NTSC version could have been slow and the PAL version could have been fast.
btbuilder 8y ago
Pretty sure NTSC standard/transmission is actually 29.97. It was 30Hz when originally released in black and white and then some was dedicated to the color channel. 30fps (b&w NTSC) and 25fps (PAL) are derived from grid AC frequencies of 60Hz (NA) and 50Hz (most other countries). Kept the old-school electronics simple...

chrisper 8y ago

So happy to live in a country where downloading TV shows from the web is legal. No more annoying ads and restrictions.

chriswait 8y ago
Which country is that, out of interest?
- chrisper 8y ago
  Switzerland. Our copyright law allows for private use of media. Software piracy, however, is not legal. Also upload is illegal as well.
dmortin 8y ago
Is uploading legal too? Because downloading is legal in other EU contries too, but uploading is not, so you can't use torrent to download, because that uploads too. So if uploading is not legal then you can't use torrent.
- chrisper 8y ago
  Yeah. Uploading is not legal. That's why I use Usenet!

qrbLPHiKpiux 8y ago

Comparison video blocked, copywrite claim. Disagree. It’s fair use demonstrating allegations.

Senderman 8y ago
With automated processes for copyright claims becoming so common, fair use is really getting trampled on.
- icebraining 8y ago
  Unfortunately fair use is merely a defence, not a right.

marmot777 8y ago

Since I 100% stopped watching regular TV, watching shows on netflix, etc., so that even a few minutes of regular TV drives me crazy. It's the frenetic ads, the toxicity of many of the shows, and god knows what else that's crazy making. Now I know that it's actually sped up. How could that not affect someone's mental health in some way even a subtle way?

0xcafecafe 8y ago
Same here. In addition I can't stand the wild swings in volume. Baby sleeping in the other room so you set it to the lowest volume possible where you can hear. When it breaks into a commercial, the volume seems to increase by 50%
- marmot777 8y ago
  Yeah, ads playing louder than the programming's been going on for decades. Also, it's worth noting that advertisers intentionally manipulate your emotions, including fear. That can't be healthy. I'd say unobtrusive ads in search results, at the beginning of videos, etc., can be good. I'd feel grateful of Youtube switched back to front loading the ads to the point where I'd probably go out of my way to pay attention to those ads.
  - thaumasiotes 8y ago
    > it's worth noting that advertisers intentionally manipulate your emotions, including fear. That can't be healthy. I don't know that "healthy" is the concern I'd have there. All television programming intentionally manipulates your emotions. That's why people watch it. The same goes for... all other forms of entertainment, without exception.
    - marmot777 8y ago
      Sure, but I don't want to feel a fear reaction from an ad as there's nothing else satisfying about it to make that fear worth it. If I watch a good movie and feel fear but, at the same time, I'm fully absorbed in the movie for 2 hours then I've gotten my money's worth. The fear helped me understand the characters better, perhaps. In good movies the manipulation's part of making the experience better, not an end in itself (unless it's a crappy movie or show).

rutthenut 8y ago

2015, not new news

Rjevski 8y ago

Isn't there anything that this cancer called advertising hasn't consumed yet?

imgabe 8y ago

Is anyone still watching network/cable TV?

smelendez 8y ago
Yes. And they are disproportionately heavy video consumers with indifference to how many ads they see.
- smegger001 8y ago
  Or is the TV just left on while no one watches? I know I have been to relatives with Cable/Satalite and it gets left on all the time even if no one is watching. Netlfix Hulu Amazon (usually) eventually check to make sure you are still there to save bandwitdth/licening fees. Weirdly some shows on netflix don't seems to ask too play next episode having woken up 8 hours latter and a season or so farther than I was before.

ssttoo 8y ago

Well, isn’t that a standard practice in radio? The songs are a tad shorter and, as a result, a bit pitched up. Part of it is about ads, but mostly it’s about increasing the chance of you liking what you hear (more songs means maybe you’ll like one, at least) and not changing the station. If we can fit 11 songs in the space of 10, that’s a wider net. Why wouldn’t TV follow suit?

usrusr 8y ago
No need to speed up music, just fade it out early. Pop music has evolved to be structured in a way that not much will be lost, survival and success of the most radio-friendly. Few songs break that rule and those that do are either deliberately short or way too elaborate for radio anyways.
jghjg 8y ago
let me guess, you like american football and its 1 hour of ads and 10 minutes of play
agumonkey 8y ago
I wonder if radio in the 50s used this or if it's the result of change in market (probably due to TV too) that made them consolidate into simpler format and more ads. In which case it would be a metaphor for the faux-death of TV.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

lower 8y ago

Here in the EU (edit: at least in Germany), TV stations sometimes slow down their shows to cram in more ads. There are rules that there may be only one block of ads in a show of up to 45 minutes, two blocks in a show of up to 90 minutes, and three blocks in a show of up to 110 minutes. So, if the content is just under 90 minutes or so, stations will stretch it slightly, so that it comes above the limit.

chunkyslink 8y ago
Fancy that. The EU making some good laws to protect the consumer from the corporation. Lovely stuff.
- close04 8y ago
  "The unbelievable reason republicans HATE the EU. Click here to watch this sped up video!" The EU tends to be more considerate of its citizens than "capitalism" would dictate. It's what gives it a bad reputation among republicans, especially those with very little understanding of the intricacies of a society. This being said the fact that stations are not forced to disclose this for every single show that is being showed other than "real time" is still a bummer. I don't watch TV though but I feel compelled to have an opinion about it :).
Aaargh20318 8y ago
Not sure if it’s a EU wide rule though. IIRC the rule in my country is just a maximum of 12 minutes per hour.
- lower 8y ago
  This is for Germany. I assumed that it was EU-wide, but it may be like that in Germany only.
- SimplyUnknown 8y ago
  Bear in mind that (in my country) this is averaged over a 24 hours. So you will see fewer commercials during daytime but a lot of commercials during primetime such that it averages to 12 minutes per hour.

kokey 8y ago

Read all about it on a news web site that confine the text to part of the page in order to cram in ads.

smelendez 8y ago

I'm sure ads are the primary reason, but 2018 audiences do expect faster paced shows. There's a reason the lede refers to Seinfeld getting funnier. Jokes that were cutting edge 20-30 years ago need less introduction now. The easiest way to cut that unnecessary intro is just to speed up the show.

close04 8y ago
I read "sounds funnier" as funny-strange not funny-haha. :) Another common practice years ago was simply to cut parts of a movie. They'd go to commercials and come back skipping a few scenes.

prestonpesek 8y ago

If they are this desperate, prepare for net neutrality to become more important. I’ve already started to experience delays in streaming speeds and reliability. Please call or write to your representative and express concern that your internet service provider has a clear incentive to inhibit the free flow of information to your home, and that you are deeply concerned about this.

marsrover 8y ago

This is pretty user hostile. Glad I don’t have cable anymore.

jyriand 8y ago

Probably that's why soccer is not popular in US. You can't interrupt soccer game for an ad. That's not the case with NFL, where you see an ad every time players stop playing.

a_f 8y ago
From my experience the US broadcasts of soccer do have a ad popover the playing game on some games; often over or in addition to the scoreboard. It is much like an animated banner that you would get on a website. It does not cover the entire screen; but it is still intrusive. Of course there is still exposure to the stadium side banners, and shirt sponsors as with all soccer games.

throwawaymanbot 8y ago

unbelievable. Then they wonder why no one watches their channels. 'Murican Capitalism!

mrfusion 8y ago

This is how the death spiral starts for cable.

kj4ips 8y ago

Does this mean that the networks are creating derivative works of the content they licensed, and then airing that? Especially if they are cutting out opening titles. Overlays and EAS have usually been acceptable, and composing the end titles with something else is a longstanding practice, but it doesn't actually modify the content directly.