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I have an advanced degree in economics, but okay :) How would you explain the increase in ads then? If there is a clearly understood equilibrium ad time, why h

I have an advanced degree in economics, but okay :) How would you explain the increase in ads then? If there is a clearly understood equilibrium ad time, why has ad time increased? Have audiences become more accepting of ads? Have ads become more entertaining? I'd say the more likely explanation is that there is a lag between audience loss and advertiser realisation of audience loss. TV stations manage to meet market growth expectations by exploiting this and pumping out overvalued ads to non-existent people. Over time, they've become increasingly reliant on this strategy to keep their heads above water as advertisers catch up to reality. It can't go on forever, so they've now belatedly started their own streaming services to try and keep up.

johncessna 5y ago
> How would you explain the increase in ads then? If there is a clearly understood equilibrium ad time, why has ad time increased? Have audiences become more accepting of ads? Have ads become more entertaining? It seems possible to me that folks who are still watching tv are more accepting of ads, whereas the folks who aren't/weren't moved to something else.
- scoopertrooper 5y ago
  That'd slow the decrease in overall viewership for sure, old folks homes need to put something on during the day. But the key demographic (18-54 year olds) are likely less ad tolerant, as channels keep upping the ante on ad time they'll lose their most lucrative audience members.
bee_rider 5y ago
I haven't studied economics at all, but if you could get your academic comrades to stop offering intro courses as one-and-done gen-eds, I bet we'd drastically improve the quality of online armchair economic analyses.
pomian 5y ago
I think we have seen the same drama in newspapers. More ads. Even whole cover page, is an advertisement. Reduced readership, and unlikely to attract more due to high advertising volume.
willcipriano 5y ago
I'm a exec, I'm not that creative. I could work real hard and try to provide more value to consumers and attract more customers, but as I said that's hard work and I'm not very creative so it may not even pan out. I could also say, "Increase advertising by 5%!" and in the short term gain the same rewards as the other option, maybe even more. Then put that success story on my resume and move on. At some point shareholders decided they wanted the second option. They all move on quickly as well.

johncessna 5y ago

> How would you explain the increase in ads then? If there is a clearly understood equilibrium ad time, why has ad time increased? Have audiences become more accepting of ads? Have ads become more entertaining? It seems possible to me that folks who are still watching tv are more accepting of ads, whereas the folks who aren't/weren't moved to something else.

scoopertrooper 5y ago
That'd slow the decrease in overall viewership for sure, old folks homes need to put something on during the day. But the key demographic (18-54 year olds) are likely less ad tolerant, as channels keep upping the ante on ad time they'll lose their most lucrative audience members.

bee_rider 5y ago

I haven't studied economics at all, but if you could get your academic comrades to stop offering intro courses as one-and-done gen-eds, I bet we'd drastically improve the quality of online armchair economic analyses.

pomian 5y ago

I think we have seen the same drama in newspapers. More ads. Even whole cover page, is an advertisement. Reduced readership, and unlikely to attract more due to high advertising volume.

willcipriano 5y ago

I'm a exec, I'm not that creative. I could work real hard and try to provide more value to consumers and attract more customers, but as I said that's hard work and I'm not very creative so it may not even pan out. I could also say, "Increase advertising by 5%!" and in the short term gain the same rewards as the other option, maybe even more. Then put that success story on my resume and move on. At some point shareholders decided they wanted the second option. They all move on quickly as well.