7 ms·

I've never understood why people dislike the commercials so much. Most of their half hour (21 minute) shows only contain at most three minutes of commercials s

I've never understood why people dislike the commercials so much. Most of their half hour (21 minute) shows only contain at most three minutes of commercials spread through the show. At worse you're sitting through a minute break from the show. People pay $100+ per month and seem to live through tens of minutes of commercials per show. Plus is about having device and HD access more than anything. I like it as I get far more content from it than I can over the air and I refuse to pay $60-100/month for cable/satellite.

Supermighty 13y ago
Commercials break the flow of the TV/movie that I'm watching. It's the same reason I don't watch the networks or cable TV. It's a Netflix life for me.
- trhtrsh 13y ago
  TV shows are written in "acts", they are designed to be broken up. Ads may be a horrible distruption (so I suggest muting them and blocking or averting from the images), but for a good TV experience, you should take a break for a minute to let the previous act sink in before watching the next act.
  - lobster_johnson 13y ago
    So what about when TV shows are released on DVD/BluRay? Are we are to guess when the act ends and the next one starts? Sorry, but I don't buy this. An episode of, say, Breaking Bad does not need several-minute "act breaks" to work, so that something will "sink in". There is no series in existence so intellectually or emotionally overwhelming that one needs ad breaks to deal with them. (Though admittedly I frequently have to pause shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm because I need some fresh air after all the social embarrassment, but that's different.)
mortehu 13y ago
> I've never understood why people dislike the commercials so much. Many people are making so much money that the cost of TV shows will never be an issue, if only someone were willing to sell it to them. They still only have 24 hours in a day, and they are being shown ads they have seen many times before, and those ads weren't interesting in the first place. TV users can easily use a DVR to skip ads.
wamatt 13y ago
>I've never understood why people dislike the commercials so much. Speaking from a purely speculative and subjective opinion, it could be partially due to neurodiversity within the population. The root cause could be that differing clusters of people have differing cognitive processing abilities. For example, personally I despise commercials, because they break the flow, and force a context switch. Similarly, movement on the computer screen, whilst trying to read text is highly stressful to me. For this reason, I choose to install extensions (adblockers etc) to make sure that the screen is static, and only moves when I want it to. Some people try to control their environment, others tend to adapt. Case in point, my oldest friend, is the opposite to me, and he doesn't mind adverts, or distractions, and actually prefers to study with music playing. I'm constantly amazed how others like him, manage to blend so efficiently into the environment.
- sdfaf 13y ago
  As an anecdote, I cannot study in total silence. I find the silence extremely distracting. I must have the TV on in order for me to focus. Even the random noises in a cafe or a library helps my concentration. Some people call this white noise needed for concentration.
dreamdu5t 13y ago
Isn't it obvious? I don't want my time I slot for entertainment interrupted with shit that doesn't entertain me. I don't subscribe to TV or Hulu or anything but Netflix for this very reason. I would cancel Netflix if they inserted ads. I would rather pay $50 a month for Netflix if that meant being ad-free.
veidr 13y ago
Ignoring the obvious "I don't want to watch fucking random useless shit in the middle of something I am enjoying," there is another reason: commercials create mental pollution that in some cases never goes away. For instance, I still have the jingle of this horrid local low-budget commercial from KFTY TV 50 (UHF broadcasting out of Santa Rosa, CA) in my brain: "♫ Auto body masters... EuroCal... ♫ Auto body masters... EuroCal...". I was fucking eight. It's been thirty fucking years. And yet that crappy little jingle for a company I never used still bubbles up to the surface sometimes, in the shower or in the subway station. We all carry around these little worthless turd fossils in our heads. I noticed my friend humming McDonalds' I'm lovin' it to herself as she worked just 20 minutes ago. Gross.
- mccolin 13y ago
  While I feel your pain... that jingle must've been damn catchy! I wonder how effective it was at attracting potential customers from the older-than-eight set?
- VMG 13y ago
  So if you hadn't seen the commercial, what else would be playing in your head? Mozart?
  - JonnieCache 13y ago
    Perhaps. Don't you get music playing in your head?
  - personlurking 13y ago
    This is the question. We intake so much that has been produced by others (mostly for commercial purposes) that it's plausible that one doesn't know what would be going through their head, were it not for commercials, movies, tv shows, advertising and the like. One of the reasons I stopped watching (the stand-up comedy section at the start of) late-night talk shows is because laughing meant I was inside the bubble and, in my view, part of the problem. Also interesting to think about is if we take out the need for money (ie, in Star Trek or back when we traded things) it makes me wonder what we would be spending our time with, mentally and otherwise.
markhelo 13y ago
If I am paying for a service, I prefer to have the option to not have ads. If you like ads, go for it. If PBS, HBO and other premium cable can be ad-free, Hulu should be to. The reason they are not, is because the three networks want more money on their content. However it is a short sighted strategy. (Disclaimer: I worked at Netflix a while back). The competitive advantages that Netflix has over everyone else are more than the technology, which is enormous in itself but they also have a great thought out business strategy. Reed Hastings is a true disrupter. He started out with building the technology first and having perfected that is now becoming a better HBO before HBO becomes a better Netflix. HBO has been making great strides on their technology but Netflix has a 3 year headstart on them and now has enough subscribers to compete for exclusive content. I as a consumer am hoping this fight lasts long so that we all benefit.
zwily 13y ago
> People pay $100+ per month and seem to live through tens of minutes of commercials per show. I suspect that most people here with cable don't watch any commercials, due to the magic of DVR. At least, that's true for me. I can't stand not being able to skip them, so I hate Hulu.

Supermighty 13y ago

Commercials break the flow of the TV/movie that I'm watching. It's the same reason I don't watch the networks or cable TV. It's a Netflix life for me.

trhtrsh 13y ago
TV shows are written in "acts", they are designed to be broken up. Ads may be a horrible distruption (so I suggest muting them and blocking or averting from the images), but for a good TV experience, you should take a break for a minute to let the previous act sink in before watching the next act.
- lobster_johnson 13y ago
  So what about when TV shows are released on DVD/BluRay? Are we are to guess when the act ends and the next one starts? Sorry, but I don't buy this. An episode of, say, Breaking Bad does not need several-minute "act breaks" to work, so that something will "sink in". There is no series in existence so intellectually or emotionally overwhelming that one needs ad breaks to deal with them. (Though admittedly I frequently have to pause shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm because I need some fresh air after all the social embarrassment, but that's different.)

mortehu 13y ago

> I've never understood why people dislike the commercials so much. Many people are making so much money that the cost of TV shows will never be an issue, if only someone were willing to sell it to them. They still only have 24 hours in a day, and they are being shown ads they have seen many times before, and those ads weren't interesting in the first place. TV users can easily use a DVR to skip ads.

wamatt 13y ago

>I've never understood why people dislike the commercials so much. Speaking from a purely speculative and subjective opinion, it could be partially due to neurodiversity within the population. The root cause could be that differing clusters of people have differing cognitive processing abilities. For example, personally I despise commercials, because they break the flow, and force a context switch. Similarly, movement on the computer screen, whilst trying to read text is highly stressful to me. For this reason, I choose to install extensions (adblockers etc) to make sure that the screen is static, and only moves when I want it to. Some people try to control their environment, others tend to adapt. Case in point, my oldest friend, is the opposite to me, and he doesn't mind adverts, or distractions, and actually prefers to study with music playing. I'm constantly amazed how others like him, manage to blend so efficiently into the environment.

sdfaf 13y ago
As an anecdote, I cannot study in total silence. I find the silence extremely distracting. I must have the TV on in order for me to focus. Even the random noises in a cafe or a library helps my concentration. Some people call this white noise needed for concentration.

dreamdu5t 13y ago

Isn't it obvious? I don't want my time I slot for entertainment interrupted with shit that doesn't entertain me. I don't subscribe to TV or Hulu or anything but Netflix for this very reason. I would cancel Netflix if they inserted ads. I would rather pay $50 a month for Netflix if that meant being ad-free.

veidr 13y ago

Ignoring the obvious "I don't want to watch fucking random useless shit in the middle of something I am enjoying," there is another reason: commercials create mental pollution that in some cases never goes away. For instance, I still have the jingle of this horrid local low-budget commercial from KFTY TV 50 (UHF broadcasting out of Santa Rosa, CA) in my brain: "♫ Auto body masters... EuroCal... ♫ Auto body masters... EuroCal...". I was fucking eight. It's been thirty fucking years. And yet that crappy little jingle for a company I never used still bubbles up to the surface sometimes, in the shower or in the subway station. We all carry around these little worthless turd fossils in our heads. I noticed my friend humming McDonalds' I'm lovin' it to herself as she worked just 20 minutes ago. Gross.

mccolin 13y ago
While I feel your pain... that jingle must've been damn catchy! I wonder how effective it was at attracting potential customers from the older-than-eight set?
VMG 13y ago
So if you hadn't seen the commercial, what else would be playing in your head? Mozart?
- JonnieCache 13y ago
  Perhaps. Don't you get music playing in your head?
- personlurking 13y ago
  This is the question. We intake so much that has been produced by others (mostly for commercial purposes) that it's plausible that one doesn't know what would be going through their head, were it not for commercials, movies, tv shows, advertising and the like. One of the reasons I stopped watching (the stand-up comedy section at the start of) late-night talk shows is because laughing meant I was inside the bubble and, in my view, part of the problem. Also interesting to think about is if we take out the need for money (ie, in Star Trek or back when we traded things) it makes me wonder what we would be spending our time with, mentally and otherwise.

markhelo 13y ago

If I am paying for a service, I prefer to have the option to not have ads. If you like ads, go for it. If PBS, HBO and other premium cable can be ad-free, Hulu should be to. The reason they are not, is because the three networks want more money on their content. However it is a short sighted strategy. (Disclaimer: I worked at Netflix a while back). The competitive advantages that Netflix has over everyone else are more than the technology, which is enormous in itself but they also have a great thought out business strategy. Reed Hastings is a true disrupter. He started out with building the technology first and having perfected that is now becoming a better HBO before HBO becomes a better Netflix. HBO has been making great strides on their technology but Netflix has a 3 year headstart on them and now has enough subscribers to compete for exclusive content. I as a consumer am hoping this fight lasts long so that we all benefit.

zwily 13y ago

> People pay $100+ per month and seem to live through tens of minutes of commercials per show. I suspect that most people here with cable don't watch any commercials, due to the magic of DVR. At least, that's true for me. I can't stand not being able to skip them, so I hate Hulu.