3 ms·

As an American, what shocked me in the UK was the amount of ads for sports gambling. Literally every commercial during games was for a betting site. It felt pre

by xxpor 7y ago

As an American, what shocked me in the UK was the amount of ads for sports gambling. Literally every commercial during games was for a betting site. It felt pretty gross.

qppo 7y ago
As an American we may not want to be throwing the proverbial stone in that glass house
- vinay427 7y ago
  To be fair, I think their point in this case is many countries are in proverbial glass houses, some stronger than others.
  - xxpor 7y ago
    Exactly.
iso1210 7y ago
You're right, it's shocking, although I think it's mainly during sports (which sports nerds already pay a fortune for to subscribe to sky sports / bt sport). The vast majority of TV viewing in the UK is on BBC, amazon prime, netflix or disney plus, and thus doesn't contain commercials, just adverts for other shows from the same provider. The rest of the stuff is mainly aimed at old people sat at home - visited my nan today, who had some terrible channel on (channel 65 or something). Adverts were almost entirely for stairlifts and to leave money to charities in wills.
- xxpor 7y ago
  That doesn't sound so dissimilar to the US :) Ads during the day are either for old people or stay at home moms.
bambataa 7y ago
UK sports (or sports TV at least) is very tightly linked to gambling. Many football teams are sponsored by gambling companies. About 15 years ago there was a huge debate about whether we should allow “American-style” supercasinos but we just did it through sport instead.
sangnoir 7y ago
The only reason sports gambling isn't as big (or bigger) in the US is due to a historical aversion to gambling (thinly veiled piety in government), and because Major league sports orgs are still figuring out how to get the most money out of it.
- xxpor 7y ago
  Sports gambling is now quite large in states that have allowed it since the SCOTUS case a year or so ago. Still not a lot of TV ads though, more web advertising.

by xxpor 7y ago

As an American, what shocked me in the UK was the amount of ads for sports gambling. Literally every commercial during games was for a betting site. It felt pretty gross.

qppo 7y ago

As an American we may not want to be throwing the proverbial stone in that glass house

vinay427 7y ago
To be fair, I think their point in this case is many countries are in proverbial glass houses, some stronger than others.
- xxpor 7y ago
  Exactly.

iso1210 7y ago

You're right, it's shocking, although I think it's mainly during sports (which sports nerds already pay a fortune for to subscribe to sky sports / bt sport). The vast majority of TV viewing in the UK is on BBC, amazon prime, netflix or disney plus, and thus doesn't contain commercials, just adverts for other shows from the same provider. The rest of the stuff is mainly aimed at old people sat at home - visited my nan today, who had some terrible channel on (channel 65 or something). Adverts were almost entirely for stairlifts and to leave money to charities in wills.

xxpor 7y ago
That doesn't sound so dissimilar to the US :) Ads during the day are either for old people or stay at home moms.

bambataa 7y ago

UK sports (or sports TV at least) is very tightly linked to gambling. Many football teams are sponsored by gambling companies. About 15 years ago there was a huge debate about whether we should allow “American-style” supercasinos but we just did it through sport instead.

sangnoir 7y ago

The only reason sports gambling isn't as big (or bigger) in the US is due to a historical aversion to gambling (thinly veiled piety in government), and because Major league sports orgs are still figuring out how to get the most money out of it.

xxpor 7y ago
Sports gambling is now quite large in states that have allowed it since the SCOTUS case a year or so ago. Still not a lot of TV ads though, more web advertising.