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"Commercial breaks––people actually enjoy TV more with commercials." I've never enjoyed being disrupted by commercials nor has anyone else. This is why Tivo

by darod 4y ago

"Commercial breaks––people actually enjoy TV more with commercials." I've never enjoyed being disrupted by commercials nor has anyone else. This is why Tivo became so popular

johnchristopher 4y ago
https://hbr.org/2010/10/defend-your-research-commercials-make-us-like-tv-more https://hbr.org/2010/10/defend-your-research-commercials-mak... > The study: Leif Nelson, in collaboration with Tom Meyvis of New York University’s Stern School and Jeff Galak of Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School, showed subjects three kinds of TV shows: Taxi episodes, nature documentaries, and Bollywood programs. Some watched the shows with commercials, some without. Subjects who watched TV with commercials reported greater enjoyment—and were willing to pay more for DVD collections of shows by the same director—than subjects who watched without interruptions. Maybe the show is good enough that people want to watch it without interruptions but the show is not good enough that people who have watched it would pay to rewatch ?
- fartcannon 4y ago
  This is probably rude, but maybe people who are happy to sit through commercials are more capable of enjoying the extremely middling (I'm being generous here) quality of most TV? So people who dislike commercials also dislike the kind of shows that are on TV and thus aren't willing to watch more or pay for more.
- Terretta 4y ago
  Plausible explanations include (a) the study is flawed, (b) some TV is so bad the commercials are a relief, or (c) the cohort that enjoys TV with ads more are the nascent idiocracy. Did those willing to pay more for the DVDs want the ads on the DVD? Or pay more to get without ads?
  - petercooper 4y ago
    The article says the reason. A pleasurable activity being interrupted and restarted is more pleasurable due to the resumption. This makes a lot of sense to me, because I certainly enjoy a lie in more if I wake up and then go back to sleep than if I merely woke up at the later time. I think it's a variant of the old "nothing feels good if nothing feels bad to compare it with" chestnut. You could probably replace the commercials with almost anything mildly inconvenient.
    - darod 4y ago
      I think it really depends on the type of interruption. Most commercials are not a calm segue to take a break from the show. Advertisers purposely increase the volume because they know you're going to be stepping away and shock you with colors and a barrage of images because they know they have microseconds to get some image into your subconscious so that you can think of their product on your next commute to work.
- cantSpellSober 4y ago
  It was actually several studies, most were conducted on ~100 American college students in 2009. The authors themselves weren't totally convinced: > As has been shown with other positive life experiences, people predict and recollect experiences in terms of their imperfect expectations and often independent of their actual experience. As such, after having watched a show with commercial interruptions, consumers may rely on their lay beliefs and later recall that experience as aversive, which in turn will lead them to expect more aversive reactions to commercial interruptions in the future. -- Enhancing the Television Viewing Experience through Commercial Interruption
nix0n 4y ago
The ideal would be a return of intermissions. A calm reminder from the Roku to take a breath, get up, maybe grab some water. (Movie theaters would make more money this way, also.)
rconti 4y ago
Not exactly the same, but I often watch TiVo'd or otherwise-DVR'd content; I might start 30 minutes 'behind' on a 3 hour event and have a very, very hard time 'catching up' to live -- I pause for my bathroom breaks and grabbing food or drink, and find that I need almost as much time away from the content as the commercial breaks (which I'm skipping) would have offered. It's still nice being able to choose when to take those breaks, however.
kshacker 4y ago
As I have gotten older, and as I am watching more serialized TV (and sometimes news), I find it helps to get a break once in a while. Mental or watch based breaks are one thing but I find myself ignoring them. Commercial breaks that I do not control are definitely helpful. Now I do not want 38 minutes of TV and 22 minutes of commercial, but I would definitely welcome fixed 2 minutes breaks every 20 minutes or so. I may still skip through them, but there may be times when I just let it run while I walk around or check messages - we can talk all we want about device addiction but if I know I will get a break, I am less tempted (and maybe less addicted) to check messages by pausing the show.
sbmthakur 4y ago
A side-effect of commercial breaks is interrupting viewer's eye-contact. In case of longer breaks people often walk around for a couple of minutes.
jimbob45 4y ago
A lot of shows are/were designed with commercials in mind. For example, the villain will shoot at the protagonist without showing whether or not the shots hit until after the commercial break. That extended suspense has been more or less lost in the age of Netflix (unless shows design for that suspense in another way).
- sangnoir 4y ago
  > For example, the villain will shoot at the protagonist without showing whether or not the shots hit until after the commercial break Or worse, until the next episode which would air the following week...or year if it's a season cliffhanger. I have mixed feelings about binge-streaming, but shoehorned cliffhangers are bad IMO.
abawany 4y ago
Agree - at best one gets used to commercials, like dirt in the house until the vacuuming can happen, but one never enjoys them. I didn't realize how much I hated ads until I tried Netflix a few years ago - I've never been able to watch tv/cable/ad-supported "free" content since then.
eternityforest 4y ago
Nobody does. But they might enjoy the time in between the commercials more. They might, an hour later, still have a level of happiness that's greater than if the show was without commercials, and answer accordingly on a survey. If something is less enjoyable than you think it should be, I think "Maybe it's the lack of disruptors" is a fair guess. Especially with some very intense shows that could be emotionally fatiguing without breaks, and when the timing of commercials is well chosen. It's not just random interruption, they can be used to make segments between like mini acts or episodes.

by darod 4y ago

"Commercial breaks––people actually enjoy TV more with commercials." I've never enjoyed being disrupted by commercials nor has anyone else. This is why Tivo became so popular

johnchristopher 4y ago

https://hbr.org/2010/10/defend-your-research-commercials-make-us-like-tv-more https://hbr.org/2010/10/defend-your-research-commercials-mak... > The study: Leif Nelson, in collaboration with Tom Meyvis of New York University’s Stern School and Jeff Galak of Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School, showed subjects three kinds of TV shows: Taxi episodes, nature documentaries, and Bollywood programs. Some watched the shows with commercials, some without. Subjects who watched TV with commercials reported greater enjoyment—and were willing to pay more for DVD collections of shows by the same director—than subjects who watched without interruptions. Maybe the show is good enough that people want to watch it without interruptions but the show is not good enough that people who have watched it would pay to rewatch ?

fartcannon 4y ago
This is probably rude, but maybe people who are happy to sit through commercials are more capable of enjoying the extremely middling (I'm being generous here) quality of most TV? So people who dislike commercials also dislike the kind of shows that are on TV and thus aren't willing to watch more or pay for more.
Terretta 4y ago
Plausible explanations include (a) the study is flawed, (b) some TV is so bad the commercials are a relief, or (c) the cohort that enjoys TV with ads more are the nascent idiocracy. Did those willing to pay more for the DVDs want the ads on the DVD? Or pay more to get without ads?
- petercooper 4y ago
  The article says the reason. A pleasurable activity being interrupted and restarted is more pleasurable due to the resumption. This makes a lot of sense to me, because I certainly enjoy a lie in more if I wake up and then go back to sleep than if I merely woke up at the later time. I think it's a variant of the old "nothing feels good if nothing feels bad to compare it with" chestnut. You could probably replace the commercials with almost anything mildly inconvenient.
  - darod 4y ago
    I think it really depends on the type of interruption. Most commercials are not a calm segue to take a break from the show. Advertisers purposely increase the volume because they know you're going to be stepping away and shock you with colors and a barrage of images because they know they have microseconds to get some image into your subconscious so that you can think of their product on your next commute to work.
cantSpellSober 4y ago
It was actually several studies, most were conducted on ~100 American college students in 2009. The authors themselves weren't totally convinced: > As has been shown with other positive life experiences, people predict and recollect experiences in terms of their imperfect expectations and often independent of their actual experience. As such, after having watched a show with commercial interruptions, consumers may rely on their lay beliefs and later recall that experience as aversive, which in turn will lead them to expect more aversive reactions to commercial interruptions in the future. -- Enhancing the Television Viewing Experience through Commercial Interruption

nix0n 4y ago

The ideal would be a return of intermissions. A calm reminder from the Roku to take a breath, get up, maybe grab some water. (Movie theaters would make more money this way, also.)

rconti 4y ago

Not exactly the same, but I often watch TiVo'd or otherwise-DVR'd content; I might start 30 minutes 'behind' on a 3 hour event and have a very, very hard time 'catching up' to live -- I pause for my bathroom breaks and grabbing food or drink, and find that I need almost as much time away from the content as the commercial breaks (which I'm skipping) would have offered. It's still nice being able to choose when to take those breaks, however.

kshacker 4y ago

As I have gotten older, and as I am watching more serialized TV (and sometimes news), I find it helps to get a break once in a while. Mental or watch based breaks are one thing but I find myself ignoring them. Commercial breaks that I do not control are definitely helpful. Now I do not want 38 minutes of TV and 22 minutes of commercial, but I would definitely welcome fixed 2 minutes breaks every 20 minutes or so. I may still skip through them, but there may be times when I just let it run while I walk around or check messages - we can talk all we want about device addiction but if I know I will get a break, I am less tempted (and maybe less addicted) to check messages by pausing the show.

sbmthakur 4y ago

A side-effect of commercial breaks is interrupting viewer's eye-contact. In case of longer breaks people often walk around for a couple of minutes.

jimbob45 4y ago

A lot of shows are/were designed with commercials in mind. For example, the villain will shoot at the protagonist without showing whether or not the shots hit until after the commercial break. That extended suspense has been more or less lost in the age of Netflix (unless shows design for that suspense in another way).

sangnoir 4y ago
> For example, the villain will shoot at the protagonist without showing whether or not the shots hit until after the commercial break Or worse, until the next episode which would air the following week...or year if it's a season cliffhanger. I have mixed feelings about binge-streaming, but shoehorned cliffhangers are bad IMO.

abawany 4y ago

Agree - at best one gets used to commercials, like dirt in the house until the vacuuming can happen, but one never enjoys them. I didn't realize how much I hated ads until I tried Netflix a few years ago - I've never been able to watch tv/cable/ad-supported "free" content since then.

eternityforest 4y ago

Nobody does. But they might enjoy the time in between the commercials more. They might, an hour later, still have a level of happiness that's greater than if the show was without commercials, and answer accordingly on a survey. If something is less enjoyable than you think it should be, I think "Maybe it's the lack of disruptors" is a fair guess. Especially with some very intense shows that could be emotionally fatiguing without breaks, and when the timing of commercials is well chosen. It's not just random interruption, they can be used to make segments between like mini acts or episodes.