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Pop-up Ads Coming to A TV Near You
Muddie writes "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that television execs and advertising agencies think product placement and the 30 second commercial spot are not getting the respect they deserves from us consumers, so in order to combat us ignoring them, there will be pop-up ads taking up the lower quarter of your screen during normal programming. Not only that, but the ads will run during relevant portions of the programming (see a guy shaving in the mirror, get a pop-up ad from a razor company). Do "They" think we just don't see enough advertising in a day? If you aren't busy throwing things through your television yet, you can read the article over here (with no pop-up ads)."
Discovery channel does that with upcoming shows already. Though they take up more like the lower ninth, last only a few seconds, and only happen just after commercial breaks.
I wonder if we'll get x10 ads during spytv? God help us.
Time Warner will be getting their digital cable box back too. Hitting these guys in the pocketbook is your only way to get a message to them.
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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
I'm glad I live in a country with advert-free TV.
Just imagine what this is going to do to the Playboy Channel and Spice TV....
How soon will it take for someone to write a Tivo patch that auto-resizes/Zooms in on the screen to cut out this crap?
I don't know about others, but here when they broadcast football games, they show a commercial in the bottom 1/4 of the screen for something like 3-5 seconds. They broadcast it in the "dead" time while nothing really exciting is happend on the field, and it appears about 1 commercial every 7 minutes..
many people record shows and skip the commercials, having pop up ads would effectively force you to watch ads no matter what, as long as it was a part of the broadcast signal.
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
they can fuck off, I reckon.
That was classic intercourse!
Granted - nothing will keep me from watching West Wing and Law & Order - but beyond that when I just want to veg and watch TV - having popups in teh corner would be over the line for me - I'd do something else or watch a cable station.
I'd take brief ads screens during the pause in sat channel changes before I'd accept this type of advertising. Its too intrusive. I know the TV stations need to make money - but at some point ads will take over the show and I'll stop watching.
At some point overbearing ads will drive people away - I'm already ready to stop readnig NY Times because their ads pop up constantly, even using the Lizard.
Top Most Bizarre/Disturbing Error Messages
this isn't meant to be annoying.
sure, i like to watch a movie now and then, but honestly people, you'll be better off and enjoy life more if you turn of the tele, or get rid of it altogether. why not?
I've been without a TV for about 8 years now and it's been really nice. Oh sure, I can't chuckle along with my coworkers about last night's Friends episode, but somehow I still get by. The best part is that after coming home from work I actually have to find something constructive to do with my time instead of wasting the next 5 hours watching sitcoms. Toss your TV. You'll like the results.
Crap, no Alt-F4 on my TV.
Why would they think "the 30 second commercial spot are not getting the respect they deserves from us consumers," we are over commercialized as it is, But they will probably do it, and people will have no choice but to see them,
Not to sound elitist, but I'm glad I've cured myself of the TV addiction. I watch 10 hours per year, tops.
Now, if they start inserting pop-up ads in video games, I'm screwed.
(Product placement in video games is bad, but I can tolerate it. Actual ads are a different story ENTIRELY).
They really don't talk about the fact that many now have 29"+ tv's in their homes. With a larger screen, losing part of it to ad's won't seem like such a horrible deal to many. We've already been conditioned by ESPN with it's sports ticker and CNN/et al with their news tickers. The shrinking of the content really sucks on 19" and smaller tv's, but with more and more people watching on their 51" projectors, this should help the networks and advertisers out a lot.
fuckin libertarian fuckwads would just obey the laws of the free market, you'd figure out that no one wants this, therefore it will go away. but nooooooo, you'll all whine about it, while renting your Disney and Warner-Bros movies.... buncha hypocrites.
Make this a Challenge to the /. community.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
I remember a SNL did a skit once for MSNBC where they had so many graphics up on the screen you could only see the lips of the news anchor at one point. I think it's only a matter of time before that becomes a reality.
Isn't this just going to lead to LESS people watching TV? There's a fine line between advertising that is effective and advertising that turns customers away. It seems that marketing people don't understand this simple concept. Personally, I don't think it will take them too long to figure how stupid this idea is.
If you don't like this (and I would be *very* surprised if you did) then don't watch the channels that make use of this. Better yet, if it's on cable TV, get yourself a good antenna and set it up on your roof. Many antennas provide better reception than the corresponding cable channels. Antennas also don't give money to the media companies. I think.
TANSTAAFI: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free iPod.
i've got a better idea. How about streaming
content underneath ads that only shows during
commercials. i'm thinking sport scores on espn,
stock ticker on msnbc, etc. all the stuff these
guys currently stick under their usual content
they can instead stick under their ads.
anyway, i don't own a tv, so maybe they already
do this.
I think it would be better if they showed adds all the time on the bottom of the screen.
Then I could just mask it off!
TV just doesn't do anything for me anymore, I stopped regularly watching television a long time ago and I haven't missed it yet, even though I spend that time sitting in front of my computers, at least I'm somewhat more productive.
Simply tape over the offending area of the TV in order to resume your viewing pleasure.
"A prime time 30-second spot on the biggest networks typically costs $100,000 to $200,000, but advertisers complain that viewers are paying less attention to them."
and
"Commercials fill an average of 15 minutes per hour of prime time on the big broadcast networks, up from 9.5 minutes in 1983."
Well geez, I wonder why people have started ignoring ads. Instead of lowering airtime costs, they have only raised them, and increased the total airtime of ads per hour.
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I sig, therefore I was.
I can understand why advertisers are looking at doing this. I for one haven't watched a commercial in months since I've bought my TiVo. We got some new Dell PC's in the office a while back and somebody was joking around "Dude you're getting a Dell" and I had no idea what the hell he was talking about until he told me about the commercial :) Of course if it's during the programming I won't have much of a choice to watch it or not, that's just how the advertisers want it.
If you can afford to advertise, you don't need to.
On Sex In The City there will be X10 pop-up ads.
SCO (noun.)- A Slimy Corporate Ogre. Often seeks free money.
I was kinda taken back when I was watching Law and Order on TNN and this type of advertisement came up for American Express... maybe it is coincindence, but the show was about a broker who screwed the mob out of a lot of money and then murdered somebody, hows that for targeted ads?
you do realize you can just cover them up if they always show up on one part of the screen? no biggie. and maybe that'll cut down on in-between commercials.
I belong to the ______ generation.
We should not be so surprised. All the media will go through not one, but many revolutionary changes as digital media change the underlying assumptions.
./ in music, soon in video, and of course TV.
/. a few months ago. Time for another link to the future of TV advertising
We talk about it all the time on
TV advertising used to be linked closely with the show, the actors would break from acting and endorse the product during a show called "G.E. Hour" or "Hallmark Hall of Fame."
The PVR will make the 30 second ad not very useful, so they will move to other things.
I have a proposal for one possible change that was featured on
Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Think Truman Show style in-show ads, and you'll get the idea.
Action pauses, item is consumed or discussed in detail by the characters, then action resumes.
Goddamn that's obnoxious - one more reason not to waste time on TV ;)
Do the big advertising/media companies not realise that todays youngsters are learning to filter out advertisments? It doesn't matter what format the ads are in, as soon as my mind realises its an ad it gets censored out from my conciousness. I suspect many other people have learned to react in a similar fashion.
.sig not attached.
It's like anything we get exposed to on such a constant basis; as soon as we realize its presence our mind edits it out again. There's only room for so many things in our mind's bandwidth, and ads are easily dropped out as worthless and not useful.
Doesnt this already happen in Greece with banner adds during football matches telivised there ?This whole adds within a program thing really does raise the question of how crap does tv have to get before we stop watching it,I mean whats next a tv channel that is nothing but a series of shiny pictures and sounds which are actually just add's, oh wait thats mtv.
_________________________________________________
Sure, some people take this time to go grab a beer or maybe some pretzels, but that sure as hell doesn't take the full 2minutes and 30seconds of advertising time.
I'm going to stop watching tv all together if they put these ads on the bottom of my screen. Just my 2 cents.
Please look for my upcoming port of Junkbuster for Tivo.
Have these men no decency? Is nothing sacred? Why not just completely integrate the adds into the shows...... "And now Barbara Walters reports on how using Mobil can cut your car repair costs in half?" or "Captain, long-range sensors are picking up extra fluffy toilet paper ahead. It has ripples!!!!" and so forth
Ted Turner must die. Walt Disney must die... er, wait, he's dead, maybe his ghost is haunting Ted.
The entire television industry revolves around one thing: Advertising. If there's no advertising, there's no money, and therefore no reason to be in business. If an advertiser is willing to pay 30% more to have ads on during programming, and the general public will roll over and accept it (a sure thing in America) -- you know it will happen, and will only continue to get worse.
I've given up on all non-pay networks. HBO is the only place where I can actually enjoy a movie. Now, if only HBO did news, it would be perfect. I have NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER paying for entertainment/information in this way.
Cable and Satellite Companies, give us a choice! I will pay that extra $10 to get NBC,CBS,ABC,FOX WITHOUT ADVERTISEMENTS. If the consumer is willing to pay for the service, instead of having advertisements crammed down their throat, lets have the option out there!
Just my 2c
I mean, really. At what point would they stop, if they didn't have pesky laws, negative feedback and the like to get in their way? 12 hours of consumer commercial viewing, with another 4 hours for purchasing everything we've seen leaving 8 hours for sleep and personal hygiene?
I can see it now. Some agency will ink a deal with a state gov, you don't get your unemployment check unless you prove you've watched at least 10 hours of commercials that week. Or maybe they'll just pull a Running Man, and make it illegal to turn off the TVs. That would be a hoot, wouldn't it?
Want it without the ads? Well, shell out 50 bucks for our DVD.
Gee, I wonder if that will happen.
Stupider like a fox! - H.S.
Here in the UK (not sure about anywhere else) MTV have "Ad break tennis" where you can play pong super-imposed over the adverts until they end and save your game to continue during the next set of adverts ;-) I guess they think the ads will still get the message across submliminally or something.
One thing I hate already with Sky is that the channels tend to switch to adverts all at the same time, so as you surf all you can find are more ads! Glad we have the BBC with no adverts. I mean why do the satelight/cable companies NEED 20 minutes of ads every hour (5 minutes after every 15) when I already pay 30 quid a month for the channels?? I only pay 100 odd quid a year for the BBC which has a lot of channels and no ads!
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
Interesting question, isn't it? There's a point where I couldn't possibly have the money I'd need to buy all the great products out there.
Believe it or not, there is a hard-coded limit to how much revenue can actually be gained by advertising. Just because more ads are on the screen doesn't mean I'm going to free up more money to spend.
You can bitch and moan about how advertisers won't be satisfied until they can interrupt your dreams and put luminescent logos on the inside of your eyelids, or you can do something about it.
Talk back! Or find some other way to Interrupt Pathological, Media-Simulated Social Interaction.
Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur
after all these years of TV, my attention span is now less than 30 seconds. Perhaps these 10 seconds ads will capture my attention better. Of course, with the attention span of a guppy, I will forget the ad 10 seconds after it shows
This will be the final impetus to wean myself from the idiot box.
...The Pop-Up Book of Phobias!
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
So now can we start hunting advertising executives for sport? Please?
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Undoubtably, this is the HIGH QUALITY CONTENT that we want to copy over the internet :)Protect the TV industry or we won't be able to get 24/7 shopping channels!
I'm gonna get make myself a TV in/out passthrough from cable to computer to TV and I'm installing myself an ad-remover.
Isn't Gator getting sued for something very similar to this. Companies already pay to have product spots in Television shows and movies.
Lets take Back to the Future 2 for example. You would think Pepsi owned the world in that movie, but know TNT can pop up ads that say: thirsty? try New Coke.
..tv show directors. Sooner or later some network is gonna place an ad and block something significant from view during a major tv show, causing a major uproar not only from viewers, but the show's executives. It already happens on some channels because of those little logos in the corner.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
... if they reduce, significantly, normal ads. I can ignore the banner/pop-ups and keep watching. I'd prefer the shows were not interrupted for a minute or two. Think how much better sporting events would be (ever watch the World Cup with it's 'pop-up' ads?).
Think about it -- if the norm on TV was these banner ads, and then one day they said 'we're replacing the banner ads with 2 minute interruptions in the program', people would go bonkers. In fact, what if that became the norm on websites?
I much prefer the banners.
It sends a cookie from AJ Classified or something that even my IE thinks is evil. This is the first time I've seen IE bark at a cookie (I guess cause it's not from the news site but from an advert site).
It wouldn't behoove (oh.. I finally got to use that word) the advertisers to actually treat the viewing public as Intelligent and make creative ads instead of the drivel they constantly put out?
(1st sig) If this were a snappy sig, you'd be reading it right now. (2nd sig) I'm a karma whore. >Insert FUD here
Plenty of huge ugly banner ads on Slashdot yet sure enough they complain about the ads on TV. Go figure :)
All this complaining about how advertisers pop up commercials is a little odd. I mean, it's like violence on TV. If you don't want to watch it there is always the power button. Read a book if you don't like how the networks make money. If you are going to find a way around their current advertising methods (i.e. TIVO, the remote control, etc.) they are damn well going to figure out another way to pay the bills. I mean they do have to pay all those Friends.
as long as they are pop-under. (grin)
TNT already does banner ads - adding black bars to the top and bottom, then logos, then 'what's next' info, and more as time goes by. If the user has to actually interact to get the bloody thing off the screen, there is going to be a peasant revolt.
My dish has several channels that have an 'info' button. I keep disabling it, but since I won't run a phone line unless I can't see the video I loose the settings every few months. I think I pressed it a couple times - now I wish I could just make it go away. There will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth if I have to actually click to make the add go away. Actually, it would drive me to make an automatic cancel remote... more hardware... I'm sure the appropriations committee will approve the funding.
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
Back to topic - Are these corner ads are going to have a BLINK tag? Will they be more amusing than the product placement ad they cover up? Who watches TV anymore anyway? If nobody watches, is it still television?
umount /dev/tv
sixty thrills per second is just too much for me.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
First it was the station Logo on the bottom of the screen, but I just noticed since this ran that even Sci-Fi, Animal Planet, and other stations are using this method to push other shows. I didn't even notice they were there!
I've already started ignoring them without even knowing it!
Hmm.. in Canada.. there's always a percentage of Canadian content that has to play on each day for each channel.. I wonder if we could declare commercials foreign content!
I pay $89 a month (not that american dollars are worth all that much anymore) for TV via satellite.
Anyone remember Ed TV? Remember when Matthew McConaughey was about to get lucky with Elizabeth Hurley? Trojan had the Pop Up ad for Little Ed's "popup", at least until he fell on the cat.
Poor Elizabeth Hurley, she shoulda had a Bonzai Kitten.
My father is a blogger.
It's also fairly common on regualr TVs, VCRs and DVD players, for people who are watching a widescreen-format movie and would rather crop some bits off at the sides than see the bars along the top and bottom. Sure, zooming loses a bit of resolution, but that's preferable to seeing continuous banners.
...Until we get blip-verts a-la "Max Headroom"
Height: 38U, Weight: 0 Newtons, Eyes: #0000FF, OS: Gray Matter 1.0 (Alpha)
Make sure that you write down any 800 numbers that are displayed. Call them up and tell them that they ruined your show, and you will never buy anything from them.
"None of this might be happening if traditional 30-second commercials got more respect. "
Oh wait, so its MY fault that your commercials SUCK? I'm to blame for the fact that I'd much rather prefer reading blinky-text html than watch nearly every car commercial?
Let me get this straight, I watch a movie, and then its temporarily obscured by your stupid advertisment... Is Blockbuster sponsoring this?
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Man shaving: Gilette
Small children: Bayer aspirin
Car on a sunny road: Honda or GM
Car being destroyed: Ford
Computer in cheesy series like V.I.P.: Red Hat, IBM, Sun or Mandrake
Computer geek with personality problems: Slashdot
Computer being broken into: Microsoft
Bob Dole: Viagra
Sarah Michelle Gellar: Trojans
Powerful, cynical villain: RIAA
George W. Bush: Hooked on Phonics
Dick Cheney: Arthur Anderson
Others?
Finding God in a Dog
I pay $89 a month (not that american dollars are worth all that much anymore) for TV via satellite.
Yes but that is your choice. In the UK, to have the privilige of watching _any_ TV you first have to have a TV license. This gets you 5 channels (which are illegal to watch without a license) That's BEFORE you pay for cable or satellite. If you dont have a TV license, its to court and fines up to £1000.
Yes, I'm yelling. Godamn them for doing this. I mean, we already have to watch this crappy product, and now they're going to put blatant ads for products on our screens. Its MY SCREEN godamnit, SCREW THEM if they put THEIR ADS on MY SCREEN. What gives them the right? I CONTROL MY SCRE.... oh.. wait.. I do.
If you don't like what is showing, don't watch it. Get real people! This matters less than hot grits down Monica Lewinsky's thong.
SpamapS -- Undernet #Linuxhelp
I am not that starved for entertainment, so I have no problems waiting for it to come out on DVD.
Also, having pop up ads would force you to subscribe to HBO, et al, simply to get more crap free content. I really do find commercials irritating as it is...
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Seriously, with a lot of stuff coming out on DVD (Simpsons, StarTrek Next Gen, etc...), I can say that I watch less and less TV (also because of it being crap these days).
If they start doing this kinda stuff, they either:
1 - better start offering their services for free (no, I don't want to hear that 'value added service' crap)
2 - are going to loose even more viewers to the DVD compilation sales.
To me, the crappyness of Robber^H^H^H^Hgers is already making me switch, even if I can't see the newest shows *right* *now*
Besides, I'm sure Junkyard Wars & RobotWars will come to DVD eventually, I can wait.
AC comments get piped to
One second I'm hearing: "The big entertainment groups need to change thier model to make money and stop blaming us for "stealing" their programming"
The next I'm hearing: "The nerve of them putting in ads we can't skip!!! I can't believe the audacity."
Make up your minds.
Pop-Up Ad
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Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
This must be the reason for HDTV. As the screen narrows down squashed on my conventionals TV, I know that someone somewhere is seeing more pixels. More real estate to polute. When the old fashion barker appears on those shiny new screens in home theaters all over the country, I'm sure that the Booming stereo or quoad will have enough space for his voice to be heard clearly underneath the bigger placement advert that is the program. Wonderful! E-U-Toe-Peeeeee-Ahhhhhhhh! ha ha ha.
TV provides nothing of value.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
Yes, but presumably that 107 pounds ($170) is over and above subscription costs. In other words, you'd have to pay $105 instead of $90 a month.
How is this any difference than the Morning Show (or whatever is on NBC in the morning) spending the whole morning talking about New (Vanilla) Coke?
The Daily Show had a really funny comment about it.
Je ne parle pas francais.
But the point is, pop-up ads like this would drive me over the line to do it right away.
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
I can just imagine a steamy scene; you're getting into it as much as the actors seem to be.
Then comes the popup,
"Having trouble with lubrication? TRY KY!"
You crack up; the moment is gone. Laughing, you turn off the TV and go find yourself a real partner.
Just so we're clear on this - I'm not interested in watching TV, so I dont have a license.
My issue is the fact that I'm literally treated like a criminal because of this choice - I have to continually respond to the bi-monthly letters they send me (at my own cost) otherwise they send people to search my property. If they find any "evidence" then I get fined.
If I recall correctly, Howard Stern + Howard Stern's radio audience have been raising holy hell about similar treatment of his E! Television show.
Apparently E! runs a news banner during his show, which obviously distorts the picture, and is in effect pretty blasted annoying. People (at least used to) complain very loudly about this. It's very visually distracting. This seems to indicate that networks will have significant problems with this ad format.
On the other hand, E! still runs the banner, from what I've seen. Further, from my memory of network Sports programming, it's common to run score tickers during programming. Obviously, the benefits in this case must outweigh the loss of quality, but I know those tickers drive me up a wall.
But I only watch the Mole 2 on ABC anyway. Or the Sopranos... sooooooo my degree of caring will be minimal! =)
-D
-Greg
Sweet! I'm going to make a ton of money selling people a hitech piece of cardboard to slip over the bottom of their tv...
1. fashion piece of cardboard
2. ?
3. profit
user_pref("capability.policy.default.TVOwner.pissO ff", "noAccess");
Question: does just owning a TV make you responsible for the license, or can you have one and just use it for watching video tapes or something? And what about video cameras? Do they require a license?
I can't be bothered to pay for cable -- I hardly watch any television right now as it is... maybe 2 hours a week at most. If local stations started doing this, I'd probably just sell my TV.
I know that the shows are there to draw the audience into watching the commercials, which actually pay for the air time that the shows take up, but if they make a show less entertaining by causing ads to interfere with the picture it's just going to lead to people turning off their TV sets for good.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Tickers on TV suck. MS??, RI:SE & some others do this, it's a real pain. Think crappy flashing gifs, then multiply the irratation factor.
Wow, I should not post when knackered.
... It's how to develop little rectangle-shaped holes in our perception so that we aren't driven insane by pop-up and banner ads while surfing. Hopefully the first focus groups who report back that they don't even remember what those little pop-ups were for because they were ignoring them will show the ad execs that this is a completely fruitless endeavour. Hopefully.
___
Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum.
This all evolved from the whole USA network/Discovery Channel corner-of-the-screen ads. Some time ago I submited to /. my editorial on how to stop them. It was turned down, so I'll paraphrase it here again.
While the obvious solution to the problem is to stop watching those channels that assault you with ads, while you are trying to watch a show, many people just aren't willing to give up a station despite the annoyances.
So, as a moderate solution, I propse that you simply don't watch the commericals on that station. So, when you are watching any network with annoying ads during the show, change the channel when the commercial break starts. Probably the best choice is to switch to PBS for a couple minutes, then change it back when you believe the commericals will be over.
Although the response to this will take some time, companies will realize that not many people are seeing their ads on a particular network, and that network will get less money for ads.
And while I'm on this soap-box... I suggest everyone do the same thing at movies. When I saw the damn Heineken commercial during 'Austin Powers', I left (along with my friends) and we demanded a refund. After some arguing with the manager, we got our $50 back, and left. If more people had some backbone, you wouldn't be forced to stare at gigantic flashing "Coca Cola" signs for several seconds in the middle of every movie.
So, there's my solution. If they want you to watch commericals during shows, don't let them subject you to the commericals during the break as well.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
The only chance you have to stop this nonsense is to
make a big fuss. Complain to the advertisers, teach
them that associating their product with a feeling
of outrage and annoyance does not sell more product
it sells less.
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
The Oxygen network already does this. They have a constant banner on the bottom much like an ESPN2 sports ticker, but they use it to give trivia, dumb comments, and information about whatever you're watching, sort of like a pop-up video banner. And then when commercials come in, they actually use that space to tie into certain commercial spots, like laundry detergent or whatever.
Sometimes useful while watching Xena, but otherwise mostly annoying.
This is interesting, we're paying for cable, satellite, digital cable etc. Someone is going to realize that people will pay extra to not have the bottom corner obscured. I already pay $30 (CAN) a month for cable, now some yahoo is going to call me at home (at dinner time) and offer me an upgrade package to get rid of the extra ads.
How big is Slashdot anyway? If we all change the channel and watch something else when one of these ad infested shows comes on can we effect ratings enough that the idea will die? Try it, worst that happens is you yield a little less of your brainspace, best case we get rid of the ads.
if you Tv were'nt capable of showing broadcast TV it would be a monitor - and they are exempt. Same goes for video cameras, unless for some reason they have a built in TV tuner. The system sounds basically unfair, and yet works remarkably well. Bit like the British constitution.
That was classic intercourse!
The UK TV Licensing law states:
"It is illegal to use TV receiving equipment to receive or record television broadcast services"
I _own_ a TV and VCR, and I have a blockbuster card and also a collection of video tapes that I like to retain the ability to watch. It is only illegal to _use_ said equipment in above mentioned manner. Video cameras would be fine, however if you connected a camera to a monitor with the aim of watching a live broadcast then that would be illegal.
This in itself I dont have a problem with; Im not interested in TV. My problem is that they continually send me letters that are deliberately misleading as to make one think one must have a license merely to own a TV set - for example they state that it is illegal to _use_ TV equipment etc, and if I do not _have_ a TV then I should write and tell them. This is at my expense. To call them they have a national rate number (about 50c a min) so again I have to pay to tell them I'm not breaking the law. If I do not tell them I'm not breaking the law, they send people to search my property. they automatically get search warrants if I'm "uncooperative" and dont answer the door. I've told them many times that I own a TV and that I dont need a license to which the answer is always "that's fine" however the letters and harrassment don't stop. My next step may be to see what rights I have under the European Statute of Human Rights, Article 12 which deals with privacy.
Imagine if the police had the same powers...
"Dear subject - your property will be searched at a random time to ensure you are not breaking the law. If any evidence is found then you will be fined etc"
How long before we see TVs and DVRs that filter these ads. Even a black corner of the screen is much preferable to distracting advertising during programming. We watch widescreen movies already with a % of the screen blacked out anyway...
-- Adam
The next great invention will be TV Spam...to watch a TV show, you will first have to look through 100 unsolicited programs on breast enlargement and Nigerian bank frauds. Bring on the white noise!!!!
This cought my eye
The pop-up ads on TNT didn't spark a wave of angry phone calls or e-mails from viewers, said Koonin, who considers the ads a success. As with all new attempts at advertising, however, viewers are likely to have the final say.
Could it be because they were changing channels to another station?
Have you noticed how *they* are cutting up the shows much more and inserting more and more ads? I was watching CNN today and was desmaied by how little of actual programming was shown and how many adds was was in between. I am pretty sure it(whatever program was running) started the first ad off in 15 minutes, the second in 10 and fineally every 5 munutes they switched to a commercial. At the rate its going, there will only be 30 second shows between each ad.
I'm totally against the concept of TV pop-ups, but at least TBS and these advertisers are examining new routes of revenue and different business models instead of trying to destroy whatever they believe is hurting their current system (*cough* (RI/MP)AA *cough*). Give them a little bit of credit for that. Hopefully they'll just find a different less insane route. Just because they "haven't ruled it out" doesn't mean they'll use it. Besides, a big ad for Folger's or something popping up over Friends couldn't possibly make the show any worse.
Did anyone actually see these things? They said they tested them over the summer...
If I see one to three advertisements in a day, I'll probably remember them all. I might even think about them later on and buy something. If I see 300 ads in a day, they're no more memorable than the individual cars on the freeway -- which means I only remember the really obnoxious ones that pissed me off and caused me to swear revenge.
One would think that advertisers would understand this, and while they probably do, they ignore it because advertising is one of the great hoaxes of modern society. Every ad you see represents money in the bank for someone who suckered someone else into paying him to conceive or display the ad.
The person paying for the advertising really has no way of determining the effectiveness of an ad campaign. Increasing or decreasing sales could be attributed to any one of a number of factors. That's why so many organizations ask "How did you hear about us?" or "What caused you to buy our product?" (I always answer "Satan")
Just you wait, it's only a matter of months before they start showing commercials DURING the movie in the movie theater. Real commercial breaks just like TV.
In fact you will start to see boxed ads constantly on TV soon. That is, the show you're watching will only occupy the top 2/3rds of the screen or be a box in the upper right. The rest of the screen, about 30-50% of the total screen will be ads, sometimes several at a time.
BTW does anyone else notice that the Disney channel does not sell ads. They only market their own media. And because of that there are different rules for how much commercial time during each hour they can have. It's typical for them to run back to back 5 minute previews of the show you're going to watch in next hour. I think they're down to maybe 22 hours of content an hour.
While on vacation in Turkey I saw this on TV there, some 3 years ago. It was more like 1/8th of the screen, and not very intrusive at all. I'd rather go without it though.
this notion of relevancy is nonsense. How is an ad for a razor relevant to *me* just because the on-screen character is shaving? Personal relevancy is already offered (or approximated, at least) by targetting the ads to the demographic: You watch Days of Our Lives, you get Midol and Tampon ads. You watch Jerry Springer, you get ads for Natural Light and Slim Jims. You watch Al Jazeera, you get ads for glycerine, nails, and anti-coagulants. Of course, this is purely speculation.
from the article: None of this might be happening if traditional 30-second commercials got more respect. Many consumers treat them as an excuse to change channels. Well, using 25% of the screen in one of the corners for a pop up ad won't really stop me from channel surfing during the ads...I'll just cover over the ad with picture in picture...that way, I'll never even notice when there are commercials!
In India (where more movies are made than in Hollywood), this is already happening...has been since about 5 years now. I know this when I went there in 1997. Basically, its like an ever-present ad bar with rotating ads. It's kinda like a stock market ticker except bigger covering about 20% of the screen. I don't believe they have the kind of technology at present to have smart ads that relate to the content on the screen. Some ads are very annoying because they pop up out of the ad bar and covering 1/2 of the screen for about 10 seconds.
Not only that, but the ads will run during relevant portions of the programming (see a guy shaving in the mirror, get a pop-up ad from a razor company
That is all...
---
I also don't think this is possible. Every vision sounds great in text, but when/if they release this tv popups.. it will suck, and will look horribly crappy. From the article, the tv pop ups seems annoying, but clean, as in, it will be placed and used in a sensible way...
but it reality, no one at the ad company is gonna sit and watch every show figuring out where their gonna place ads. humans = weak, will never go as planned
advertise 20 minutes per hour max. How does this get around that? We need to re-address the broadcasters rights and resposiblities when they are using public air space.
Why don't people watch commercials?
One thing that I have noticed lately in commercials, is that there is less of a focus on what makes the product good.
Some examples:
A woman sits in her kitchen enjoying cereal, while her husband and children bang on the door. The supposed thing about the commercial is that the cereal is so good, it is worth being mean, indulgent, and overall self-centered. They want you to focus on the former, but in the end, I think people only see the latter.
Many commercials rely on the "sex sells" rule. While it gets many a person interested in it, who actually focuses on the product?
I hear a commercial on the radio for a bank. It promoted itself by comparing other banks to zoo animals. (I was so bothered by the negativity, that I either changed channels or turned off the radio during subsequent airings). It then said how it was better. The commercial focused on negativity.
There are kid's food commercials that focus on nasty things you can do with the food, and how do make fun of adults, rather than talk about how good the food is.
Unfortunately, there are many such examples. I wonder if commercials started to promote the qualities of a product, and maybe focused on positive things, that people would actually want to listen to the commercials, and even focus on the product.
The only thing popud ads will do is get more and more annoying. I recently got "digital" cable and realized there was an ad in the menu! That was one reason I returned it for "regular" cable. Mentioning this to people gets them riled up.
In short, I doubt such a thing wuld ever go over well. And even if it did, I doubt it would help.
Have you read my journal today?
Now, more than ever, people will want to be able to shoot thier T.V. Hmm... too badthe PS2 doesn't have an RF input, or you could write an app to allow you to "shoot" the image on the T.V.
Oh well. I guess TiVo will come out with a "letterbox" option to get rid of the add and re-center the image. And they'll find themselves back in court.
Copyright Violation:"theft, piracy"::Anti-Trust Violation:"thermonuclear price terrorism"<-Overly dramatic language.
You mean the people that provide the programming that I want to see want to insure that they get /paid/ to provide said programming? There should be a law!
Seriously. Most television stations get nearly all of their revenue from advertising. Do you honestly think they'll continue doing so if consumers just skip past it?
There is no 'quota' of advertising. As long as you're going to watch television, it's your part of the deal to watch the ads that fund it. If not, you're a fucking thief, and you belong on slashdot.
Now stop your bitching.
Only on slashdot can a posting be rated "Score -1, Insightful".
Instead of pumping millions of dollars into finding new and exciting ways of delivering advertising, advertisers should concentrate on producing ads that hold the viewers interest.
I have a tivo. I fast forward past the majority of ads. But some, i rewind and watch again. Recently, the "power ade" ads, which feature CG scenes of what would otherwise be amazing physical feets. A jogger jumps accross an open draw bridge, a football player throws the ball nearly out of the stadium. These are interesting enough to make me want to see that again. Most ads aren't even good enough to watch the first time, so i don't. If they're forced upon me DURING THE SHOW, they are obviously going to be annoying. If i don't change the channel or turn off the TV, they're at the least going to leave a bad taste in my mouth. I'll look for products that don't remind me of being pissed off.
Just like those DVDs that FORCE you to watch the ads. If i wore a watch it wouldn't be a timex, because the forced ads are so damned annoying.
Who didn't see this one comming? What choice do they have with things like the TiVo and replay TV becomming more popular, the 30 second spot will become more and more worthless.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
hehe. Funny. What is the first thing I see when the page loads? an ad.
flogger
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"First things first -- but not necessarily in that order"
-- The Doctor, "Doctor
TV is crap anyway. If u want a film er .. that's what they created DVD's for. All the *Good* Sitcoms or shows or whatever are allready available on DVD.. the rest .. well that's just crap anyhow.
So, will there be popups in the advertisements as well, a la Gator. Then, we can go to pop-ups in the pop-ups. I see the revenue opportunities endless! You can then sell for non-pop-up "premier" advertisements. Or they could go back to the cable subscribers and try to sell them on "premier" non-pop-up channels (much like the "advertisement-free" channels).
Perhaps we could just go back to charging people competitive prices for a good product instead of decreasing the prices and producing a worse product?
How is _alienating_ viewers going to make more people watch? Maybe they should take a lesson from RIAA and actually care about their customers...hey, wait a sec...
the crunchenticker. {That's a 'self-loading handgun', for you Brits.}
During the previous "presidential" "administration", I used to keep it handy on the coffee table, to shoot at the frequent liars that would appear on the news.
I put it away a while ago - admittedly prematurely.
It always made for a great conversation piece, especially when I would pick it up, point it at the TV, and yell stuff like: "Liar, LIAR, Pants On Fire!!" whilst clicking away. Of course, with the real ammunition safely tucked away in the safe, this made about the same noise as a kid's (unloaded) cap gun, but it was good clean fun, and decent trigger practice if you take the time to control your shots.
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
Nonperiodic Central Trajectory
Someone will make a box to put between the signal and the TV that will run a pattern recognizing algorhitm on the signal and blank out the adds. Just wait an see :)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
I sat down and did some math. With all the different HBOs/Cinemax and the package deals, I end up paying about $1 per channel per month. In that, I get movies and orgininal shows uncensored and commerical free.
Outside of those channels, I only watch about ten of the ~200 'normal' channels, with very little frequency. So I get to pay about $4 per channel with edited movies and ever increasing advertising.
Granted, some of that money from basic packaging goes directly for the cable overhead, but still, why am I paying more per watched channels with advertising then the better ad-free channels??
What a country.
The Internet is generally stupid
Seriously,
I have been TV-free for 10 years now, and believe me, I don't miss it at all. You only have so many hours a day/a life - why yield them up to shit programming chock full of shit advertising?
To hear people complain about TV advertising, and yet go on watching TV like it's some necessity of life like food or water or air, makes me want to cry/laugh.
Anyway, it's your life. If you want to sell it, that's your business. But don't whine once you've made your choice. And it IS your choice.
When an executive can declare in all seriousness that not watching commercials is stealing, then it's pretty clear that the advertising industry is in desperate trouble and large parts of it are unsustainable. In a rapidly evolving environment where old business models are redundant, the industry has reacted by declaring war on the public.
It couldn't be more clear that the audience for "content" is the product; the consumer is the ad-industry and its clients. Unfortunately, the product is getting a bit out of control, refusing to look at what it's been told to and using technology to enjoy content in ways that can't be controlled. A shoddy product fetches a lower price [link to graph of banner ad rates over last 3 years]. If the ad industry continues its escalation in annoyance, I don't see how they can fail to irritate their way to oblivion.
My next sig will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush
Green has lived without television since 1989, when his then-girlfriend moved out and took her set with her.
Does this mean he hasn't been laid since 1989? I suppose a new girlfriend would require a new TV?...
I'm not surprised a lot of this came from TNT....
....just my opinion.
Isn't the head of TNT the jerk who said, when talking of Tivo or Replay said that people had a 'contract' and HAD to watch their commercial??
This article is in the Atlanta newspaper? Hmm..home of Turner 'empire'? It's not even good journalism, as everything is taken at face value with no opposing views... it's simply propaganda.
For example:
It says the news channels have shown people accept all the various junk on the screen. I'd say nobody has a choice. Once one went with the garbage, all of them went with it at the same time. There's not a cable news channel with an alternative to see if the lack of the trash would impact viewer rates.
It says young viewers will accept all kinds of things on their screens...(like spam...my words). I'd say it's the younger generation who've most decidely they didn't like things like spam and pop-ups and been the ones who first create and use the software to trash the spam and thwart the pop-up/pop-overs/pop-unders (And I thank them, since I'm not the younger generation.)
I don't think TNT is an example of a 'test' market as they already have so many commercial minutes / hour that anyone who watches entertainment on their network already have succomb to just about anything and probably would take the additional crap. (JMHO, I've watched TNT twice in about the last year..and never made it through a program.. as they don't run programs with commercials they run commercials with a little programming.)
If it starts hitting the mainstream, I think you will find the revolt. The broadcast channels are still 'in the public interest' as far as licensing and their airwaves free. If AOL/Time Warner wants to turn them totally into infomercials with a tad of content, I'd say they can step up and pay billions for the use of the public airways.. as some in Congress wanted when they doled out the HDTV channel space...as if AOL Time Warner can afford spending billions on anything at this point. They're just want to turn TV into something as lame as AOL.
PS... the guy is right about one thing in that people have shown they can 'multi task'. The one nice thing, on occassion, that all those damn commercials do is..when they aren't in sync between a couple channels..is give one the ability to watch two complete programs at the same time on different channels simply by switching between the two during commercial breaks on the other. (Though, instead of putting up with some commercials, it pretty much insures that one doesn't see any commercials.)
My $.02...
At *my* expense!
Just this morning I was watching the MSNBC channel. The reporters literally spent 5-7 minutes talking about the 50th anniversary of Matchbox toys, and their "new state-commemortative edition cars" as they said it. Then they put them on the table and started commenting on their "coolness". Not to troll or flamebait, but the integrity of stock reports (and the news in general) are so clouded by other corporate interests these days...
Yea it (pop up ads) sure have done the trick for the internet world and reaped millions (most the sites begging for your last few bucks seem plenty rich from the plethora of ads boxing in the content right?). Now all we need is TV ads that randomly turn the channel to the POPUP network every few minutes.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
None of this might be happening if traditional 30-second commercials got more respect. Many consumers treat them as an excuse to change channels.
Ok now, I'm going to admit something scary. I like commercials, some of them anyway. Some of them are actually quite funny like the Squirrel-Geiko, Dog driving-carfax, dancing Gerbil-Block Buster. Well at least they were somewhat amusing before they were played to death.
There are three classes of commercial that will make me change the channel: Collect calling, Psychic hotline, and any best of cds. There have been several times I've been happily watching some show only to be driven away by yet another frightening visage of carrot top, terry bradshaw or even sweet Alyssa Milano... and when I say driven away, I'm not talking about flipping during the commercials but simply turning off the tv.
So, I'd say it's not the consumer's "fault" for becoming desensitized to normal commercials. It is the advertisers fault for making ads which are so awful they actually drive viewers away. If you think about it, some of these ads are so awful they are actually lowering the ratings of the stations running them.
This was/is inevitable. All those spinning graphics during programs used to announce what is on next have just been leading the way. They get you used to seeing something other than the program you're watching on the screen. Once we've accepted them, the more invasive adverts will be more 'acceptable'.
Once again, big corporations in the USA are leading the world in customer abuse.
Being european, I am always shocked when I watch US TV to have every show interruped each 30 min by commercial breaks. The US audience seems to have been get used to it, so it is only a matter of time until they accept even more invasive ads.
Rediculous. As if I needed another reason not to watch TV. Seriously, I watch less than 2 hours a week (except my man O'Reilly, but I rarely even watch his show). Internet > TV brain > pile of mush
There are two obvious solutions to this issue;
Number one, simply cover that portion of the screen. Stupid, yes, but at least you won't need to watch their ads. (That might be an idea for a magazine ad (heh) apposing this thing..)
Number two, (and this is the big one..) simply unplug the idiot box from any sort of brodcast feed. Antena, cable, sat, all of it. Keep a multiregion dvd player or vcr around if you want, for those old classics.
Frankly, there is nothing good on television anymore. I have a spare commodore monitor under a pile of crud and a vcr i can plug in if i need to watch something, but i doubt that will happen any time soon.
People have gotten on fine without tv for a long time. Now, internet access is another story completely.
I have a solution if TV ads get too oppresive - I'm not going to buy a new HDTV model.
The whole point to HDTV is better quality television - well, the networks aren't going to give me that, so fuck 'em.
Let's see how the consumer electronics divisions of the media giants respond if - because of shitty ads - people do not upgrade televisions.
I have been tv free since they screwed up discovery channel (about two years ago) and have not regretted it. I read books like mad now. No advertisments and a free subscription (to the school library). What more do you need?
Just stop watching TV. Wassamatter? Can't find other ways to entertain yourself?
I was taking the PATH from Hoboken to 34th Street the other day, and as the train went into the tunnel and underwater, I of course stared off into space at the window across from me. A few seconds later, I started seeing an animated Target ad being played out in the window. I looked around confused for a second... then realized what they had done.
The train goes at a certain speed. Intervals were timed. They had created an animated advertisement, without sound, on the walls of the tunnel by spacing frames along the tracks. As the train passed at the given clip, the scenes animated themselves (optically of course).
I think that was the coolest and most creative advertising medium that I've seen in ages. I've debated getting onto the PATH just to see it again.
How effective is this really going to be? I can't see them using any more then a "beep" when a text ad pops up, but how many people are going to "read" text on their TV screen? People watch TV to be entertained, not to read. Thats also why commercials are more and more becoming a form of entertainment rather then some mundane "Buy product X from big monopoly corporation Y". Just look at the superbowl commercials for proof of entertaining commercials.
People get bored _very_ easily and I can't see placing a simple logo and some text at the bottom of the screen being very effective, people can easily ignore it. Now a 30second commercial that makes you roll on the floor laughing your ass off is about as effective of advertising as it gets. So much so that people will actually go out of their way to see your commercial. (ie: spending hours downloading them from the former adcritic.com?)
Open Source Time and Attendance, Job Costing a
It's gonna be interesting what happens in 2 years, when I get to go make a living off this stuff...
Isn't the whole idea behind pop-up ads that they would be more effective if content-related? In Quake, you would strat from small arms pop-ups, going through more powerful stuff, all the way to those lovely smart missiles pop-ups.
It will be an area of advertising akin to what was in Minority Report. For those who've seen it, you know what I'm tlaking about. For those who haven't, or have missed the dozen or so stories on /., the advertising in Minority Report was throughly invasive. Personalized advertisments in nearly every public place. "Hello John Anderton. Feel the freedom of the new Lexus!"
I recently saw a news blurb on CNN (no link, this was on CNN TV) that talked about using flipbook style pics to create "moving" picture advertisments on the walls of subways for when the trains go by.
They interviewed the riders, and do you know what most said? "I like the new ads," or "these new ads are great!" I say, what the hell is wrong with these people? I see a 6 ads on billboard on the way to work, I hear another 6 on the radio (this is a 10 minute drive!) and then when I get on the net at work I see many, many more. Then I go home. I see and hear more ads, and if I happen to turn on the TV, I get commercials.
I think that one reason companies that advertise on TV are getting less business is because people have learned to tune the ads out. I don't even need to mute the TV anymore. As soon as they cut to commercial breaks, I tune out. I will, likely, learn to tune out ads in corners very quickly. I still won't like it. But I get advertisments in many forms throughout the day, I tune every single one out. I'm personally getting sick of it, and I know it's affecting my personal perception. I know it just makes me ignore more and more things. *sigh*
Sorry for the long free flow rant. Just my thoughts on the issue. Later.
Do "They" think we just don't see enough advertising in a day?
The short answer is "no".
Executive summary: "No, they don't, and they're desperate to send you more".
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
Watch any old episode from the 40s or 50s (particularly the George Burns and Gracie show or Jack Benny). Alternatively, listen to an old 30s radio show (like Abbott and Costello eps). Product placement *was* the show, completely integrated into the plot (or just jammed in). The Truman Show was more retro than future looking, it was essentially a 1940s style programming using 21st century SFX and amoral ethics.
Kids programming used to be pure commercialism, only difference now is that the product is action figures or accessory gear (pokemon backpacks).
You don't like the medieval marketplace tactics in your face? Turn off the tv. Answer surveys in the negative ("I don't buy that product, I don't like their intrusive advertising").
I stopped listening to most radio in my area -- reason? Out of any 60 minutes, I was assaulted by as much as 30 minutes of advertising, music shorted-cut, and artist never announced. TV is going the same route. The trick is, if you just passively stop watching/listening, you drop off their radar screen. You must communicate to the media source that you are not watching them and why. The commercialism on public television and radio is what we should point the commercial stations toward (hey, this show is sponsored by X, enjoy it and consider our product).
Many companies are being fooled by the advertising agencies that that they *must* have this intrusive advertising or they'll "lose the race". Think of the advertising companies as the RIAA or MPAA... over bloated unnecessary expenses trying to fool their clients that they are needed. They could continue to exist as lean consulting agencies but that would require a different business model... (eek!!!!)
Yes, yes, I just don't understand... heh heh.
Well, how dare they try to recoup some of the incredible expense that they incur providing you with millions of hours of free entertainment. If the realities of, you know, capitalism conflict with your apparently formidable geek-TiVo pride, well my friend, that's just a pill you're going to have to swallow. You can either go the HBO route or watch some commercials. Either way, stop whining to /., and by extension, me, about it.
I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
Um, yeah, nuff said
HBO and Showtime are starting to make some REALLY good shows. I think we are likely to see all-shows networks from them soon, with no commercials.
HBO - Sopranos, Sex/City, Six Feet Under.
Showtime - Odyssey 5
etc...
Part of the problem is the deluge of commercial messages, which makes it harder for an ad to stand out.
Scene III: A corporate boardroom, with a large polished mahogany conference table, shaved glass "windows," and an espresso machine in the corner.
Big Boss: All right, Gentlemen, how are things looking in the advertising department?
Franklin: Well, Boss, our revenues have been down about 3% over the last quarter.
Jaspers: Sir, it seems that advertisers have seen the research, and they're not willing to pay as much for commercials when they know people are starting to ignore them. We've reached such a level of saturation that they ignore them even when they stay on, and between having 2000 channels and those darn Tivo boxes, they can skip or miss them if they want.
Franklin: Yes, yes, it would seem that after years and years of constant commercial barrages, people are adapting and learning to treat them as noise.
Big Boss lets out a deep "harumph" sound, his eyes narrow, and he steeples his hands in front of him. Franklin and Jaspers wait, uncertain and timid.
Big Boss: I've got the perfect solution. We'll put even MORE commercials in. That'll fix it! We'll make them show up twice as often, and that way people will notice them again.
Timid silence, followed by quick shallow nods and "Yes, sir!" "Brilliant, Sir" from our two flunkies. They jump up and exit stage right, pausing briefly for Jaspers to whisper to Franklin.
Jaspers: I don't think he knows what "saturated" means, but I'm not going to be the one to break it to him...
Can't advertisers accept that we're just not interested in buying that new, quintuple bladed, titanium based, self-lubricating shaving blade?!
... mmmm, KFC commercial on TV *drool*), I have never seen a TV ad that made me want to go out and buy that product. I really doubt that I'm going to be convinced if it pops up during the show.
Other than food advertisements (I'm hungry
... is to cut down on the time they are on. If you have 2-3 minutes before your show comes back on, they you're very likely to go to the washroom, hit the kitchen, or channel surf. If the Ad Execs cut that down to, say, 30 seconds, the viewer will more likely just sit and watch the damn thing rather than do something else. There would not be enough time to really do anything else.
Now maybe if you WANT a bathroom break, then a TIVO pause feature would be a godsend. Then again, if you have a TIVO with commercial skip....
Basically, as long as it's less bother to sit through the commercial rather than skip it, people will do it. If the advertising method doesn't bother the crap out of them (sic pop-ups) then they'll endure it. Same principle applies with the commercials in movie theaters. Who wants to struggle through the narrow isles when they can just sit and endure for a minute or two.
It seems to me that this is very similar to the problems we're having with the recording industry and MP3s.
Their business model has broken and they're trying vainly to simply patch it up by calling in the lawyers and copy-protection gurus instead of addressing the root cause -- lack of value for money.
The same goes with the free-to-air (FTA) ad-funded TV broadcast model. They're losing advertising revenues because technology (TiVo/ReplayTV) is marginalizing their business model. Like the recording industry, they're trying to patch up this shonky model by simply ramping up the intrusiveness of the advertising -- which will have entirely predictable results.
So... here's the solution:
Just as the Net allows MP3 music files created by independent recording artists to be distributed in high quality and at low cost, the use of DivX now allows indie TV producers the chance to get their programming out there at low cost.
Just look at how widely distributed and highly praised the indie 405 movie became thanks to its release on the Net.
Just as in the music industry, there are a lot of really talented producers, directors, actors and effects people out there who might gain significiant benefit when FTA TV finally pushes their luck too hard and really piss off viewers.
I'm sure that most of us would consider a subscription or short (30-60 second) advertisement at the start of each indie movie as a small price to pay in order to enjoy more of great stuff like this -- whilst thumbing our noses at the FTA networks and their lame business model.
The secret to success is realising that an obstacle in your path is simply the chance to climb up and gain a better vantage point.
Does anyone here know in what format those ads play? Does MPEG-2 support a transparent alpha channel? or do they use something else? What's used today in TV networkd?
I think most would agree, popups OR ad breaks, be reasonable :)
Sure some of it is reading good informative stuff but alot is just wasting time.
Do this shit to the audience, and I think even Joe Sheepizen will turn it off.
This crosses the line. I'm pissed enough at seeing WNBA scores take up 1/4th the screen during the ALL STAR GAME... AS if anyone not a lesbian cares about the WNBA...
Mod me down for extreme non PC-ness (which I wear as a badge of honor), but isn't the point of such obnoxious marketing to FORCE expose us to that WHICH WE DON'T WANT?!
Thank God I don't watch much TV. Enterprise ans sports programing is it.
Corporatism != Free Market
Okay I am already paying the cable company.
I pay for Sinemax, Showtime and HBO.
The only channels that get any viewing time from me are Sinemax, Showtime, HBO, Comedy Central and Sci-Fi.
I would be perfectly willing to pay extra for CC and Sci-Fi ADD FREE and do away with all those other channels.
Am I alone in feeling this way?
And yes, I do have a Tivo.
When real estate is taken up on your screen (no matter how big your screen is) You will either:
a) have to resize the original picture, which will change the aspect ratio (4:3 or 16:9)
b) miss part of the original programming, in which case how do they know they aren't cropping important material?
They could make it transparent, like a logo or something.
In ASIA (ie INDIA) they play movies, including new releases, on regular cable. However, I would say 50% of the screen is taken by the advertisements. I dont' think many of them mind, if they even have access to a tv.
Either way, I don't think americans will like/allow this.
It seems that because that because news networks do this, that people must have "gotten used" to it. Of course, I don't watch the news, or CNN... so I'm not in their statistic. What if the add blocks an important part of the movie? Consider...
Martha's son just been found dead. The investigators search through the house looking for clues. The move books around and find what appears to be a suicide note. The camera displays a full screen view of a portion of the note and you begin reading it... all of the sudden a 25% add pops up "Thinking about committing suicide? Call the teen suicide hotline and [number]" and bam!!! you've just missed because it was obsured and now you are going to sit through another hour of court trials proving a note in the stead of a person on trial for murder that you could have read...
Oh well, guess it had to come to this. I can't think of an ad that has an impact on me lately. It's a pitty.
The key in this, is that people didn't call up angry and screaming so the assume it's okay. For the most part, it must be, because people didn't complain. We should change that instead of just writing about what we should do, we should actually do what we write about we should do... and call them and complain...
Thanks, Me
When the tv industry, which has a history of being hyper-cautious about alienating viewers, is willing to do something this utterly annoying, it's very revealing. They must be pretty damn close to the end if they are desperate enough to pull crap like this.
Remember, television viewers are not customers, they are product. The television industry's customers are advertisers. You can pretty much convince human beings to buy crap, because we've been conditioned to spend money to raise our self esteem. But you can't do that with advertisers. They emotionlessly buy raw numbers of eyeballs.
Just as the banner ad business model didn't pan out on the web; now we have ads that march out in front of the content. After decades with little or no in-home media competition, television is finally facing the same problem with its banners. The sheer volume of alternatives is going to drive people away in both cases. It's an interesting time in history. Like the recording industry, TV is a sleeping giant, awakening to find that the nice cool ice it's been sleeping on has gotten too thin to stand on.
Self destructing big media. I like it!
This is a brilliant piece that someone posted on slashdot some months ago ... honestly I do not remember the author's identity.
I've been targeted right out of the market.
I've had it. I can't take any more advertising. Television, radio, magazines, billboards, even the Internet for Christ's sake. Everywhere. Why do they keep targeting me? I never did anything to them. I don't even buy anything! They're wasting their time! Fast food makes me feel like shit, soft drinks make me dizzy, candy is disgusting, chips make my stomach hurt, I don't smoke, and any band that has ever been advertised anywhere sucks unequivocally. I eat tortillas and vegetables, I drink tap water. I ride my $40 bike for entertainment. I buy a new pair of Dickies at the army navy store every year and I get all my other clothes at Costco in 3-packs. My car works fine, I use my Internet connection for long distance, I've had the same boots for three years and re-sole them when they wear out. As far as booze goes, well, as long as it's wet...
So why do they keep attacking me? Why are they filling every square inch of every available space in my life? Above urinals, on concert tickets, underneath the ice at hockey games, on blimps, in video games, as props in movies, plugs in rap songs, on shitty Web Sites (No, I will not visit your motherfucking sponsor. If you're not in it for the love, and you can't figure out any better way to pay for your site than by slapping some ugly, corrupted banner across the top of your pathetic work, then fucking close up shop, kill yourself, and leave the Web to non-polluters). They'd advertise on the backs of my eyelids if they could get away with it, and I can't hack it anymore. They win. I lose. They succeeded. I failed. Like Brian Wilson, I just wasn't built for these times. I fold. Here are all my cards. Keep the pot, keep my ante, keep the goddamn jacket on the back of my chair for all I care, I can get another at Costco. I'll be out in the parking lot getting drunk and yelling at cute girls because I can no longer stand the taste of tentacles. Marketing has poisoned everything worthwhile under the sun, so I'm giving it all up. Everything.
But the way I figure it, there's no real loss. I've seen all of the episodes of the Simpsons 200 times each. Most of the good writing was done 100 years ago. I haven't listened to FM radio in years. I could play all my records beginning to end alphabetically and I'd be 76 years old when I got to the Zeni Geva. Online culture is a fucking yawn, only good for buying stuffed goats on Ebay and getting cracked copies of $1000 software. Movies always end up at the 99 cent video store across the street eventually, and you can fast forward through those commercials. My girlie's cute and the corner bar has Pabst on tap. What else matters?
True, by shutting myself off to everything, I'm probably limiting my future potential as a 'community building' or 'bleeding edge' cog in someone's nightmarish vision of Internet profitability, but fuck, a simple read through my writing should've cured that anyway (Note to potential employers: The bidding starts at $120,000 a year with full dental).
So I'm out. No more.
I just feel bad for those of you I'm leaving behind. You'll be wearing your Slave Labor Nikes, sweating under a Third World Vest, listening to Everqueer or Fratboy Slim, your hair styled stupidly with gasoline and aborted pig placentas, trying to choke down a Double Meat Fuck Splattered Cow Testicles On The Slaughterhouse Floor Pus Coagulated Lactacious Secretion Yellow Dye #2 Deluxe. Man, will you be looking dumb. It makes me want to cry. You poor, oversugared demographic you. You're filling your apartments, your bodies, and your minds with useless junk. You stagger under your own weight, throwing money in random directions until you collapse and die, buried by a bunch of people who you failed to create meaningful human bonds with, who forget about you on the way home from the funeral.
Maybe I'm just oversensitive, but I actually feel those fingers reaching out at me - cute little girl fingers, feeling at my face like a bind man, pulling at the loose threads all over my brain, trying to find a sensitive one, one that tweaks me. Desires to be successful, attractive to the opposite sex, spiritually satiated, or conversely, the fears of disease, dismemberment, of being outcast, of repressed homosexual desires. Herd mentality as dictated by herd mentality. A gas mask of soiled wool, worn in a steaming shower of chlorinated pond water. A lumbering culture created by profit motive, existing as window dressing to disguise the brutal cynicism of the architects, the brassy checks and balances of accountants bleating commands to the flunky tastemakers on the production line. The subversion of anything subverting. The conversion of something dangerous into something profitable. The gutting of the lion and the championing of the taxidermist. And the puffy vests, my god, the puffy vests....
I give it one more shot.
I hit that little "on" button, and immediately this little red dot appears on my forehead. I feel the barrel rising on the other side of the glass as some powersuited executive attempts to get me in his sights. His scope is the best money can buy, but my nausea and skittishness mark me as difficult prey. I make a sprawling leap over a pile of books, spilling a glass of wine and sending my cats scattering. The TV takes a shot at me. It misses, but after the smoke clears, there's a shimmering can of Pepsi on the coffee table, seductively held by a well manicured (but severed) hand. Then the Taco Bell dog is outside, scratching at my window, singing "That's Amore", the secret code that alerts Col. Sanders and Ronald McDonald to get their tumor inducing grease guns at the ready. "We have a resistor! Alert Cap'n Crunch and Mrs. Butterworth. Tell Hogan to pull that Subaru around!" And then, as the entire posse of 1-800-COLLECT goons attempt to joke their way through the front door, a helmeted uberyouth does a backflip on rollerblades against the window, almost crushing the Taco dog, thankfully getting tangled in the iron jungle of security bars designed for such a moment. The severed Pepsi hand launches itself across the room onto the stereo, turns it to HOTROCK 99.5 FM and starts dancing suggestively on the turntable. Warm, gooey songs ooze from the speakers, blurring the lines between commercial and product, product and art. The walls are running with honey, blood, and Gatorade. Limp Bizkit tries to sign me up for the Rap Metal MasterCard, but is outvolumed by a chorus of creepy NY Gap models, dead eyed and Children of the Damned style, singing nostalgic 80s songs with cool detachment, trying to sell me vests. Close inspection reveals UPC codes on the backs of their beautiful necks and a legion of bulimic girls behind them, mascara mixing with puke on ten thousand toilet bowls. Budweiser frogs are crawling out of the toilet bowls. A one-eyed, mutilated Asian girl holds a pair of new Levi's against the window with a thin, purple arm and starts screeching "It's a Small World After All" at the top of her lungs. Magic, The Old Navy dog, is sniffing butts with the Taco Bell dog, who had since bit the Asian girl on the leg and now yelling something about Gordidas. A waifish beauty suddenly appears on my bed, vying for my attention, trying to talk me into a new car, her hand slowly unbuttoning her blouse, batting her doe-ishly brown eyes, "C'mon Mark. It's only a test drive. No one ever has to know."
Realizing my one escape, I yank my battered wallet out of my back pocket and pull out a twenty dollar bill. The entire scene freezes. All eyes are transfixed to the damp, smelly piece of paper. Andrew Jackson snickers and you can almost smell the cannibalized Indian on his breath. A miraculous cross breeze flows through my apartment, and I let the money go. It catches an upward draft, a hot air thermal, and is gone out the window.
And then, something even stranger happens. The spokespeople, animals, models, body parts, and corporate whores all disappear in a anti-climactic 'puff' of yellow smoke, leaving a slight smell of perfumed intestine twisting through the air. My twenty freezes in mid flight about thirty feet above the ground. A helicopter drops out of the sky, and lowers a rope down to the cash. A man in a business suit slides down the rope, commando style, and captures the money in his mouth, gives a contemptuous snort, mumbling something like "sucker" under his breath. And then the helicopter is gone, vanishing somewhere behind the radio towers spiking the top of Queen Anne Hill. Everything is quiet again.
I didn't just turn that TV off. I unplugged the motherfucker.
You're right that there is some good stuff on TV, but I think that misses the point the original poster was making. I technically have a TV, but not cable so it's almost the same thing as far as I'm concerned. (HHOS) I think he was trying to say that if you miss a few episodes of the Simpsons, it will be ok.
My wife made a good point about this a while back. If I spend an hour or an evening watching TV, I can almost never remember what I did with that day. However if I work on the house, read something (even slashdot), workout, or go to a nice resturant, I remember it much more vividly. I'm not wonderful for watching very little TV, but I do get a heck of a lot more done. I think my life is more full when TV is an activity I choose rather than the default. YMMV.
Besides, when I watch I have a hard time turning it off, even if there is nothing on. Channel surfing is addictive.
So, if i'm watching porn, what happens? Pop-ups (pun unintended) for condoms or abortion clinics?
Let them charge subscription fees then! Just imagine - instead of the airwaves being loaded with whatever junk the networks have to air, they'd have to be filled with things people are willing to pay for!
In a free market and society, voids will be filled. Unless the media companies step up and offer what the people actually want, others will continue to provide it. And, it seems clear that people want to avoid advertising, so they'd better look to profit from it, before they lose money because of it.
Sure, it'll cut down in in-between commercials, right?
Do you HONESTLY believe that? They've spent the last 50+ years reducing content and increasing advertisement time to where it's almost 50/50 now (in the US, anyway). In order to fit in yet MORE commercial time, the syndicates have been BUTCHERING your favourite shows--like the Simpsons, for example. They cut, chop and slice off little bits and pieces of every episode, and they think that the fans won't notice...and why? All to fit in yet another abnoxious commercial.
Just because they'll now have pop-up commercials DURING the 15 minutes of content doesn't mean they'll get rid of the traditional commercial break. They'll NEVER do that.
Try this experiment. At some random time walk over to the TV and turn it off
without warning or comment. In most houses this would cause a scremming fit heard blocks away.
See they got you. You'll watch anything including pop up adds or any other thing. You got to remmeber it goes like this 1) Turn on TV. 2) Now,
"What's on?" Yes in that order So it does not matter what they brodcast. People will watch it.
We get free tv which is funded by the license fee (BBC), or adverts (ITV, C4, C5, handful of digital channels).
To get more channels you can pay more money.
If I was ever to see this it would be my TV out the window...
Note the move to all the reality based shows, silly game shows and other somewhat creative but altogether low budget shows appearing. Thanks to advertising not being effective enough (except on top shows like Friends) any high budget (read sci-fi, movie-like) shows will have to move to premium networks.
Jessica Alba with a pop up victoria secret ad...mmmmmm.
It's time for someone, who matters, to step up to the plate and explain the advertising problem. The bottom line is that there are too many ads, too many to notice. If we were ever to go back the old technique of show sponsors, and few breaks, the ads might just have impact once again.
Where are we going? What is next? Product placement, ads scrolling on the screen during shows, more 'commercial breaks', etc. Eventually this will break, there just won't be enough time for more ads. Marketing as we know it will need to revolutionize, again.
How many pop-ups are too many?
How many commercial breaks are too many?
It reminds me of the cigarettes that Bruce Willis was smoking in 5th element. 25% tobacco, 75% filter.
Someday this will eventually happen, I just hope that it is sooner than later.
Maybe when this goes into wide adoption people will wake up and turn off the tube for a little while. Maybe they'll read - *gasp* - books.
Nah.
You are all fartheads.
so do we get popunder ads which show up when the TV is turned off?
If you aren't busy throwing things through your television yet, you can read the article over here (with no pop-up ads)."
Sometimes when I get real drunk I feel a dire compulsion to throw beer bottles at my TV screen (usually when the news lady comes on, or when watching "cops"-type shows). Ok so it's most the time, not 'sometimes'. I've practiced a good deal of restraint up to this point but, this may be the straw...
Drunken Troll_00
The annoying thing: The content is very calm, and the ad is very animated and busy, so it's hard not to look into the ad. At least the whole thing is quiete (at least until now).
I've been contemplating to visit at night and to place duck tape over the ad section - but considering how job security looks like, maybe not the best idea ;-)
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
What's TV? So glad I quit that lame habit years ago...
I say we all sign a pact in blood swearing never to buy any product advertized in a pop-up ad! Moreover, write snail-mail to the companies that advertize in this way explaining why they just lost you as a customer. See how long that shit lasts...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Personally, I think they're missing the whole point, its not how many ads they throw at me, its how appropriate they are. If your TV would spit out a required amount of advertising, but you could configure what kinds of ads you saw by category, I'd be alot more likely to pay attention. For example, car ads are completely wasted on me, but computer equipment ads always get my attention.
I don't have a Tivo, but I do have a little proxy that removes all the ads from the Internet for me. It's great. But here's the thing, I readily admit that if everyone used this tool, the free Internet would die. Right now it's all based on ad money, and if the advertisers recognize that nobody can even see their ad, they're simply going to stop paying for that style of ad.
Now, you've all been so gung-ho about Tivos, about how great it is that you don't see ads anymore (along with all the other totally unmissable features). That's great for you, but you have to recognize that as soon as advertizers sense that you're not watching the ads anymore, they're going to either pull the funding away from television, or make the ads more irritating.
Is anybody actually surprised that this is happening? You're pushing us towards a future where we can either pay for ad-free premium channels, or ad-ful cheapers channels. The Tivo removal of ads isn't a long term solution, you're only making the long term situation much more gloomy. Admit to yourselves that you're either killing the industry that you love, or you're creating a profit environment where they're forced to annoy you with more and more aggressive ads.
It's not their fault that the ads have to get more intrusive, it's yours. Stop whining about it.
--
RumorsDaily
Agree, the license fee and the license police are a pain, but the programming on BBC, ITV, etc., is more varied, more interesting, and less demeaning than the drivel we pay for in the U.S. Consider that most of us pay several hundred dollars annually for cable or dish access to... American television.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
The conceptual "advertising space" is saturated; making ads more intrusive isn't going to improve the situation for the advertisers.
I would gladly pay for all content that I am exposed to, as long as I could be guarenteed that I would never have another ad pitched at me again.
I remember not too long ago buying a cable reciever with a hundred or so little push buttons. I couldn't get local channels on the box, but there were no commercials on any cable channel. It was great. Not to long after that, commercials appeared on some of them, then all of them, then it was just as bad, or worse, than broadcast TV. So we got rid of cable -- it wasn't worth it. Satellite offered movies without the commercial breaks (there were always some between movies, but it was about as bad as the cinema). About a year of that, and it too was flooded with commercials. It's gone.
I loved the 'net back in the 80's and ninties. I LOVED the ability to call into campus and get the 'good modem rack', with 1200 bps modems. Surfing the net meant ftp, archie and veronica, irc, eventually gopher and lynx. There was no such thing as an online ad, except for people asking newsgroups for jobs and workers. The early groups like Prodigy also started out fairly-clean (with high-speed 2400 modems!), but it wasn't long before the bottom 1/4 of your screen had a little updating ads eating up the bandwidth.
Now you can hardly go to an FTP site without the MOTD showing you an ad of some type. Ad free newsgroups? Get real. HTTP? Nearly all commercial sites are just that -- giant commercials, and good subscription sites are slowly finding that they can put ads in without too much of a complaint. Even online stores and business pages are starting to put up banner ads.
Right now I'm proud to say that I've been commercial TV-Free for a year. I will watch DVD's on computer, sometimes watch a show on a VCR, and I always go to movies 15 minutes late and STILL am early enough to get ads from Coke, Pepsi, and Nike. I have a TV but it is plugged into the playstation; the TV is always set to channel 'INPUT'. I have coworkers who sometimes suggest shows, and if I feel like it I'll watch it, but usually I don't. (I made an exception for Dilbert, when it was on.) I am able to block most ads online with a simple DNS filter, but even that doesn't work all the time. (my .hosts file is huge, almost a half-meg!)
I'll say it again. I would gladly pay for all content that I am exposed to, as long as I could be guarenteed that I would never have another ad pitched at me again.
Frob.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
http://www.blindwino.com/driverjunk15.html
"Break out the gin, and the small violin, I'm a raging success as a failure." --Firewater
I'll take a piece of duct tape and tape it to the screen just so it covers the bottom 1/4 where the ads are. So there.
Let's see, my tv is broken. It's fixable, I but havn't gotten around to it. In the meantime I've spent more time online, playing games and messing with Linux. Stuff to do, stuff to do. Busy playing with my stuff. TV? I forget, do I need that?
Say for example that the ads take up the bottom 15% of the screen. Would the solution then be to alter one's television to only show the top 85% of the screen? You could choose between stretching the remaining image to fit the screen, just blacking out the ads, or even replacing the ads with anything you want. (Personally, I could go for a Zombocom banner)
I doubt it would be hard to hack TV card drivers so that they would do this. How difficult and expensive would it be to do this to a normal TV?
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
Why dont they just drop the show and just run ad's! They do that late at night! The shows are basicaly framwork to seperate the ad's! 24 hours 7 days a week 30 days a month 365 days a year of ads!
Johnny Carson used to do a number on the midnight move when he was the host of the Tonight Show. 1 second of move 20 seconds of ad's.
Did SN have a number dealing with too many bugs on the screen?
I hate to say it but some of those ad's are better than the junk they are showing now!
Well its back to books unless these morion create a pop up ad in them!
Bwahahahaha. I threw my TV set out years ago.
Advertising doesn't work above a certain level of exposure.
Its called saturation.
For a while, the audience efforts to reduce the ambient noise, the ads, got more effective.
VCRs, Tivo, channel hopping, Zappers etcetera have saved commercial TV from exceeding the saturation point for years. But now the advertisers are becoming more desperate and more strident.
Attempting to increase the time per pair of eyeballs becomes counter productive and people will turn to any channel with fewer ads and more content. As long as they can that is...
People go to sports events because there's fewer ads and interruptions for non-content.
My tolerance for BS, uh, ads was merely lower than most people's but I think that when the ads and obvious product placement in the content exceeds 30% of the on-air time, people are just going to stop and read a book or go play outside or talk to each other or maybe NOT talk. (Mariages are going to either be ruined or a lot more fuckin' fun.)
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
I agree -- most ads are cheap crap that are overplayed to the point where they're probably right up there with Chinese water torture in terms of their effect on the human mind.
Maybe if advertisers and the creative teams they employed got of their fat backsides and actually created some stuff worth watching then they'd find that the terms "ad break" and "change channels" weren't so intimately linked in the consumer's mind.
Most Slash-dot users are probably too young to remember the Dinah Shore show on TV when it was sponsored by "The Chevrolette Dealers of America" -- but this is a great example of how advertisers and content can be blended to the benefit of both.
Imagine for a moment -- "The Nike Seinfeld Show", or maybe "The Coca Cola That 70's show."
Of course asking a single sponsor to pay for the equivalent of all that ad-time would be a bit steep and represent poor value -- but ask yourself exactly why advertising costs so much anyway...
Why on earth is anyone (even Jerry Sienfeld) worth more than a couple of thousand bucks an episode? Isn't it about time these "stars" realized that the future of their medium might just be in jeopardy unless they're prepared to take a pay-cut that puts them back in "the real world."
Back in the 1960's, Chevrolette could afford to sponsor an entire show because Dinah Shore got paid a "fair" wage for what she did. The advertising was intrinsic to the program -- even the show's theme was a song that included the words "see the USA in your Chevrolette..."
When you have actors asking for, and getting, tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per episode (or more) then it's no wonder the ad-funded model no longer works.
This is all too much like the music industry where someone (not always the artist) is charging far too much for the services they're providing.
If everyone starts thinking "moderation" then maybe those halcyon days when an entire program could be sponsored by a single advertiser without the need for endless ad-breaks or pop-ups could return.
What "they" need to do is pick a television advertising method and stick with it. Having TV commercial breaks during a show along with advertisements during the show is just way too much.
Either have them during the show, or during a break in the show (not both), and maybe I'll be able to live with it.
void women (int money, time_t time);
Speaking of Viagra, here in Australia (and, I presume, around the world) Pfizer launched a new advertising campaign during the World Cup, using Pele as their spokesmodel.
The gist of it was "I'm not impotent; I don't know if anybody I played football against in my entire career was ever impotent; but if we were, we should have talked to our doctors." What the fuck? Why take advice on impotence medicine from men too caught up in their macho personae to ever admit to the possibility of being unable to achieve an erection just once in 40-odd years of sexual activity? I'm sure all that money and fame must be a huge aphrodisiac -- and I've heard rumours that he'd scored more chicks than he had goals, if you know what I mean -- but surely all that physical exercise can tire a boy out a bit at times...
deus does not exist but if he does
I mean, get real.
There's nothing on, anyway.
Who cares?
t_t_b
I'm on PJ's "enemies" list! Are you?
That isn't much worse than those stupid animated CG prehistoric creatures that the Discovery channel ran along the bottom of the screen to advertise their show about... umm... stupid CG prehistoric creatures.
The already annoying network logo at the bottom of the screen has increasingly been replaced with more and more ads for coming attractions.
Pop-ups for 3rd party products are just a natural evolutionary step.
So, ya'gotta ask, why are we paying for cable? Certainly not the clean picture and reliable reception; at least not with Cox (Fairfax County, VA) anyway. I guess if you want to escape the crap, you have to pay for premium cable (HBO, Cinemax, etc.). I don't know because we don't have 'em. Come to think of it... the only reason I watch TV at all is because I don't pay for cable. I moved back with the folks, and well... the cable is there like free booze for an alcoholic. When I was on my own, I listened to NPR, read books, and fiddled with the computer a lot more. We didn't even have a TV.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Just don't watch TV. I'm not trying to be a pretentious bastard like this guy (Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own A Television), I just want to stand up and say "hey, I did it, and it didn't kill me...in fact, it's rather nice." I got rid of it 3 months back and I don't miss it. I miss it even less when I read stories like this.
Yo dawg, I heard you like the Ackermann function, so OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD
The young adult viewers whom advertisers are most interested in may be among the most likely to accept the idea of watching commercials and shows simultaneously, said Lichter of the Center for Media and Public Affairs. After all, he said, they are comfortable with a multi-tasking TV screen a la CNN's Headline News
Because there's nothing, nothing todays youth gets off on more than watching that CNN, to the Xtreme even!
Everything will be taken away from you.
Of course, most people don't have anything other to occupy their time these days anyway, so they might as well watch their programming in all of it's purely marketing glory.
Heh, did anyone else see Minority Report? What brilliant irony, a film with tons of stuff showing how scary, invasive, and annoying advertising could become, is a film laced with product placement from beginning to end...
How long till the moon has a Pepsi or a Nike logo staring down at all of us. We the people, we the consumers.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
MTV kinda does this. They have bars at the top now that tell when things are, and I think they have had products up there at the same time.
Tibbon
tibbon.com
If you don't like the advertising you find on _commercial_ television you don't have to watch it. Noone is forcing you to watch Oprah. Noone is holding your head, peeling your eyelids back, forcing you to watch re-runs of "The Antiques Road Show" or any other of cable's lovely programming. Personally, I can't stand television. Reason: you can only do a few things while watching television. You can eat. You can drink. You can waste your life away hour after hour doing nothing particularly useful or even really all that entertaining. And of course, most importantly, you can be spoon fed all of the social engineering bullshit that television stations try to cram down your throat, letting you know what you should be thinking about certain ideas. No, you need not bring your own thoughts to the table if you are going to watch television.("noone in particular" have mercy on your soul if you actually get your news from TV...)
For all of you who like to watch television, I have a book for you: "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury. If you couldn't locate the public library if it was up your ass on fire, here is a web site for you:
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/
If all else fails, consider getting off the couch and going for a walk. You might even consider showing some affection to your significant other. Whatever you do, know that the sooner you turn off the TV forever, the sooner life gets better for you.
Russian Russian Russian RussianDollSig DollSig DollSig DollSig
to watch the television and advertising industries slowly commit suicide. At least the 'music' industry bastards will have company in hell.
uh-oh - somebody's been watching Blind Date again.
What I'd like to see are comercials that actually gave me a good reason to buy their product over their competitors. Instead you get car comercials with people jumping around, clothing comercials you can't tell are clothing comercials, and more teens showing how cool it is to use this and this. If your rice cooker or whatever is better, tell me how so. And if it isn't, I'm not going to rush out and buy it.
Everything will be taken away from you.
Imagine popup ads over naked peoples private parts (austin powers style) of say.... viagra, trojan, vagisil, yeast infection medications, any clothing ad, and tang, becuase i think of tang when having sex.
too bad i don't care enough about registering and nooone will see this
It's called black cardboard. You can buy it at any local hobbyshop. Hell, you could even fold a newspaper in half a few times and tape it nicely and neatly right over the bottom of your screen.
:)
I hope they do away with commercials completely and go to the bottom screen banner format. I've got a nice piece of opaque material just waiting to be taped over the lower portion of my screen.
I still download the shows I like to watch, but I find that the small amount of trouble I go through to obtain the various episodes online is worth the effort to 1: avoid all commercials, and 2: get a clear picture. I don't have cable/sat, and from the amount of TV I watch, there's clearly no reason to waste my money on either.
Remember, advertising is only effective so long as its not annoying. People are used to the typical commercial break. Those are annoying in their own way, but they do give people the opportunity to hit the bathroom or grab a bite to eat. Popups will probably be about as well received as they are on websites. I've found myself consciously avoiding sites that have popup ads, or even worse those ads that obstruct the page content. Yes, I realize there are browsers that eliminate both these "features", but I'd rather vote with my eyeballs by denying those sites the hits.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
If they start to run pop-up ads only, what you can do is go buy a big screen and duct-tape the lower 25% of
the CRT. Now you can watch TV ads-free, and it's wide
screen too!
I'm so sick and tired of all these companies complaining about not making enough money. A big part of the problem is the fat. You know, the middle men. The article mentions MindShare "a company the buys TV ads for companies" I'm sure they don't do this for free. Maybe instead of coming up with new and better ways to anoy me, all these companies could cut a little fat and make more with what they've got. Here's a redical idea, sell a product on it's merits, not on how many times you can jam it's image down my throat.
This is just another example of the Enron syndrome. Bloated business space scrambling to find ways to justify themselves. Enough already.
Ask Slashdot: Where bad ideas meet poor googling skills.
I was only living in the US for 3 months, but man did the ads get annoying.
During Buffy there'd be these huge ads that rolled in, taking up the bottom 1/4 to 1/3 of the screen, advertising some competition or another show on UPN... god it was disgusting.
Australian TV shows have been doing it too... they just can't hold themselves back can they?
To quote a cheesy movie: (JP)
"They were so interested in whether they could, that they never stopped to think if they should."
However, the difference here is probably that we're talking about adverts for products, not other station related promos...
Urgh.
Argh.
And spit.
The last time I watched TV, the Lakers were beating some other team at basketball. Good game!
Haven't found any reason to watch it since. Hope that doesn't spoil anybody's plans.
When I stop watching TV all together, and the sales plummit and all the big annoying businesses go out of business. What will happen then?
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
there will be pop-up ads taking up the lower quarter of your screen
Elegantly simple solution, I'll just put duct tape over the bottom quarter of my screen and paint it up to look like the rest of the case. As far as I'll know I've just got a TV in wide screem format that never seems to get any ads...
I've seen this before. But not in America. Check out Indian (as in Bollywood) movies on video and you'll see advertisements pop up on the bottom of the screen. Although, I haven't seen this recently and I'm not exactly sure how far spread it is - that is, if it occurs on Indian TV programming and in the Theatres.
I wish I could just pick the shows. I only reguarly watch a handfull of series, and I'd gladly pay a weekly fee to, say have them sent to my home on a dvd or legally download them if it meant no comercials.Not to mention it'd be nice knowing my money was being used as a vote to keep the show in production, instead of loving a show popular among geeks but not the general public and knowing it'd be canceled thanks to the current tracking system.
Everything will be taken away from you.
The sad thing is that subscription TV is no better than broadcast. With the few exceptions of the high-priced premium channels, there's as much, if not more advertisement on cable as there is on the broadcast channels.
Even worse is that with the coming of the new HDTV format, we're supposed to shell out $2,000+ for a new digital television which, if the broadcasters get their way, will prevent you from skipping the ads with your VCR. (There is no way in hell I'm going to spend that kind of money on a TV infested with video spam.)
The article mentions that ad time has gone from 9.5 minutes (in 1983) to approx 15 minutes per hour. That's giving the networks too much credit. In a recent survey, the ad time was closer to 20 minutes with NBC the ad champ at a whopping 22 minutes per hour during prime time.
The only cure is to bitch loudly and bitch often. Both to the networks and to the corporate sleaze bags that think we would be the least bit interested in seeing their cheesy product shoved down our throats. If they're going to make a career out of annoying the viewing public, then we should return the favor.
When all else fails, run.
"Just how many people actually tune in to watch a second-rate sequel that's seven years old on a second-rate cable network?"
I don't see a quick and easy way to get those particular ratings, but over 2.5 million people tuned in to WTBS last Sunday night to watch
- Austin Powers
so if even 1/10th of that number watched- Father of the Bride
, and if only 1% of the unhappy people actually complain (rather than your estimate of 10%, just to be pessimistic) then I think all practical people would call TNTs little experiment a success.I'm not saying I like it. I'm just lending you another perspective. Your other point about entertaining ads is also a good one, but there is a caveat: many entertaining ads get watched, and remembered, but the watchers can't remember what the product or brand was. I'm getting getting off on a bit of a tangent here, but come along anyways. IT IS VERY VERY HARD TO MEASURE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ADVERTISING. There are all kinds of different goals: build brand awareness, build product awareness, improve brand image, improve product loyalty, etc. Sometimes when you catch the consumer at just the right time, you can make a lifelong impression, particularly on young people. When I was a young teenager, Diet Coke ran a "just for the taste of it" campaign for a while with gorgeous visuals of hot chicks, and cars, and jets swooping, and catchy music I can still remember vividly, and for a time it made me think Diet Coke was "cool." And so I drank Diet Coke over all other soft drinks for the next 15 years. No practical amount of market research is going to clearly protray something like that, so TV execs, and ad firms, need to convice advertisers that stories like that really happen and justify $100,000 for 30 seconds, or whatever the ad rates are. Another quick one, when Energizer came out with the pink Energizer Bunny campaign, it was a huge success by some measurements: most people recognized the Bunny after only a little exposure to the ad, and could correctly identify the product behind it. But there was NO EVIDENCE that it made people any more likely to buy Energizer batteries. Is that a success or a failure? Well they cancelled the campaigne for a long time, and then they brought it back, so its a matter of opinion obviously. Will pop-up ads work? Thats a matter of opinion too, but in the face of falling ad revenues, TV execs are willing to try anything.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
With the Cartoon Network starting their "Adult Swim" bloc of animation, I was hoping that maybe the WB and MGM cartoons that CN has on its "banned list" might resurface. Unfortunately CN doesn't have the cojones to do it. So nobody gets to see amazing cartoons like "Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarves", "Tin Pan Alley Cats" and "Blitz Wolf" because they're not politically correct.
Some Bugs Bunny cartoons like "Bugs Bunny Nips The Nips" and "All This And Rabbit Stew" are on the "banned list" which meant that in 2000, when the pre-1948 WB cartoons and the 1948-on WB cartoons were "reunited" as AOL Time Warner properties, they couldn't air all the Bugs Bunny cartoons on June Bugs like they originally wanted to.
This crap also goes on with newer cartoons too. The incredibly good animated series "Daria" finished its run on MTV this year, and is now being aired on "The N" which is what Noggin calls itself after 5pm.
Now, Noggin is a joint partnership between MTV Networks' Nickelodeon channel and the Childrens' Television Workshop, best known for Sesame Street. This means that a lot of stuff gets cut from "Daria". So much so that some episodes get turned into meaningless mush after the schoolmarm censors get done with it. There are also episodes that will not air on The N.
At least I have my tapes of the episodes as they originally aired. [sigh]
I hate censorship.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
The other day, I was about to have sex, and this guy walks into the room and tells me to try Durex brand condoms. I was like "wtf man, you ad guys have gone to far"
"...more and more of our imports come from overseas." - G.W. Bush
I recall an essay (maybe on Salon?) a few years ago when popup ads were just not leading the click-throughs they wanted, and the online ad market began to bottom out.
... whatever). The ads may get so ridiculous that people may just tune out, and the whole ad market may suddenly collapse, or realize all their glitz and schmaltz was just the Emperor's New Clothes: invisible.
The author said something like, "For the first time, advertisers began to realize that maybe no one has been paying attention to their ads. Before, there was no real way to tell if an ad worked or not, and now, it's beginning to dawn on them that nothing they have ever advertised has ever worked as well as always thought. Did spending money on all those billboards really increase use of their brand of gasoline? Did all those Superbowl ads actually increase beer consumption any? This fear of proof of consumer blocking caused many to pull out of the popup game, in fear that it would eventually cost them their jobs in other areas."
Maybe true, maybe not. But personally, rarely has an ad worked on me. They are just noise. I usually go by word of mouth or what's available (only Coke products, waitress? Okay, Diet Coke instead of Diet Pepsi
Ads are a game where the scores go by the whim of the populace. It's a crapshoot at best, and at worst, you can fudge anything to make it look effective. "Look, I placed these million-dollar ads for holiday candy in November, and in December, sales for candy canes went way up, more that 200% over the last six months of sales combined!" Uh... yeah.
Screw that, next it will be the size of a postage stamp. I bet this is because with DVD's, the internet, video game systems PVR, etc, in addition to the fact that we learned to ignore the shit and their value has gone down, the media companies know they are fucked.
Work the ad into the show in a tasteful manner (as if that is possible) would be fine, but annoying pop-ups will piss off even more people enough that they will either give up TV, or find some way around it. I wonder if this crud will also discourage people from upgrading to HDTV. I am only going buy a HDTV for video games, and DVDs.
I guess I better shut up now because I am currently on the run from Ted Turrner. I heard that he is going to kill me for playing video games during commercial breaks! I hate to find out what he will do when he hears I also go to the bathroom during commercial breaks!
...and it shits me to tears.
:-(
More often than not it's for an upcoming program of special television event that you just can not afford to miss lest your heart will stop beating in your chest and the world will cave in around you.
Sometimes it's for the product that brought the program to you (no, the atmosphere brought it to you, the product paid for it, but I useually let that one slip) I hate seeing Energizer adds popup during Buffy
Also the trend is to squish the credits into half-screen and add-up that space too!
fsck commercial telly, SBS rules (think Life Support) ABC is good when they turn the bias down and chanel 31 has the best laughs in town (at, not with, that is)
I've got a crappy idea that hopefully would catch on. After everyone gets some sort of PVR, be it TIVO, or ReplayTV, or whatever. The advertisers make really good commercials. Ones that I would laugh at and enjoy. Then let me burn and copy these commercials to whomever I want. Increasing the amount of exposure the commercials reach. Eventually our p2p networks will be filled with so many commercials that we won't know what is a commercial and what's a real show. Confusion and profit for all!!!
chicks dig *nix Bell Labs Unix -- Reach out and grep someone 1 4m d4 1337
we pay them to do it to us.
When do we grab a bat and smash their heads to jelly, huh? Me first!
Its called saturation.
Well, one less pair of eyeballs will be glued to the screen. When are these yahoos gonna get it? Too much is too much, it just gets tuned out. Like the surf at the beach, after a few minutes, you just don't hear it anymore.
Some friends of mine asked when I was gonna but a HDTV. Told 'em, when my current set stops working, I won't worry about buying a new one, 'cause I only watch about 30 minutes a week as it is. I can't see shelling out tons of bucks for watching ads.
Did any one read merchanters(sp) war? It was about a future world, where products like Coke and Pepsi hooked you, and you could go to jail for not watching enough ads. Spooky.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
It's funny the way an ad can grab your attention in a way the advertisers didn't intend. There some brand of bottled water that has a really spiffy effect in their ads. A bottle of water has all these different types of athletes swimming around in it and is dripping on to some flat surface. The athletes spring up from the water droplets and bike, run, climb off or whatever.
It's a really neat effect. I don't remember and could care less which brand of bottled water it was for. They're lucky I even remembered it was for bottled water. It won't induce me to buy anything but you know....that was a neat special effect!
Didn't The Onion come and talk to you a while back?
-CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
That sucks! [Oreck] Those bastards [Trojans] can't get away [Expedia] with this crap! [Roto-Rooter] TV execs need to have their heads examined. [Blue Cross]
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
It's been 6 months now.
I miss her sometimes.
But then I think of all the arguments. And all the times I thought she was just using me; making me buy things I didn't want or need, just to satisfy her.
Oh sure - it was the longest relationship I ever had, that's what made it so difficult. She knew me better than I knew myself; knew how to please me and show me a good time. One night I remember, I think it was New Years Eve 1997, we spent the night together; just me and her and a bottle of champagne. Heh. I'll always remember the way she'd light up a room . It wasn't just one way either. I really knew how to press her buttons (if you know what I mean). I'd have her tuned in to just what I wanted to see and she was glad to show me anything, and I do mean anything I wanted.
September of last year was when it started. She made me sadder than I'd ever been. It wasn't her fault really - it's the way she dealt with it. Over and over again - she'd show me and say the most horrible things. Things that made me feel violent - things that made me feel heartsick. She seemed to enjoy it. That's what got to me the most. It was too twisted. I'd discovered she was a little too fascinated by blood and gore. Not long after that, I wasn't rushing home to be with her anymore. When I did come home we'd stay in different rooms. Finally I asked her to leave. I think about my TV sometimes, but she's happier now - in a new house. They have kids, she's good with kids...
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
cool, now PBS will actually get some viewers.. and maybe actually hit their target mark of $1,000!!
MABASPLOOM!
Haven't you realized that there are other forms of entertainment?
Cheap ones, too.
I mean, real cheap. Masturbation, for example is real cheap, like free (as in free beer).
You just fantasize about some hot chick (or guy - all the tastes are in nature), then pop-out your boner, then just whip it 'till it creams.
No fuss, no bills, just a bit of jizz!!!
Of course, they don't provide that information online, but a Google search for smith@turner.com reveals their naming scheme as [firstname].[lastname]@turner.com.
i on /turner_broadcasting.adp provides the names of the executive board.
http://www.aoltimewarner.com/corporate_informat
I sent the following email: (These accounts did not bounce)
Jamie.Kellner@turner.com, Walter.Isaacson@turner.com, Garth.Ancier@turner.com, Brad.Turell@turner.com, Jack.Wakshlag@turner.com, Stan.Kasten@turner.com, Louise.Sams@turner.com, Larry.Goodman@turner.com, Mark.Lazarus@turner.com, David.Levy@turner.com
In reading the July 15th issue of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, the article titled "New Breed Ff TV Ads Popping Up" caught my attention. It describes a new method of advertising your network is considering whereby advertisements will 'pop-up' during the show in the corner of the screen.
As a viewer, I can tell you that this is not an advertising method I find desirable. I think it will be obtrusive and disruptive to my enjoyment of your programming. So much so, that it would be pointless for me to continue to endure those commercials, and I would not tune in to TNT anymore.
In fact, I find this poor idea so distasteful, I would likely remove TNT from the channel search of my television.
I am sure that I share this opinion with many television viewers, and I hope that our opinions matter to you.
Please do not display 'pop-up' ads on your network.
Sincerely,
Mike XXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Rd.
Portland, OR XXXXX
XXXXXXXX@yahoo.com
http//injoke.org -- Culling The Interesting
The silly translucent station logos are bad enough, as is squishing the credits to unreadability, and the line of text that pops up at the bottom to continue a commercial break a little longer for the station is starting to cross the line, but if they really start interfering with the show itself, I'll turn it off and wait for it to come out on DVD and watch it then. I don't mind non-intrusive product placement, but what they really need to do is make commercials worth watching. I wish I had a Tivo when Tasters Choice was running their serial commercial, as I missed several of them, and I don't like coffee! But I'd rather start paying directly for my tv shows, or do without entirely, than put up with intrusive advertising.
I grew up frequently finding the television as my babysitter. It's a very hard habit to kick. I've realized that when we have children that it will probably be best for them to seriously limit the amount of TV time. This is going to be a very difficult change for me because I've long been in the habit of mindlessly watching TV.
The problem in giving up television is that as soon as you turn the TV off you have to come up with something to do. If one had gotten in the habit of always watching television when there is nothing to do, it becomes difficult to come up with things to do even. So it become easier to just go back to watching television. Not sure what the best approach is to this. Sometimes I've had some success but I eventually seem to fall back into my bad habits.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
Or at the very least, a pay version of TV WITH NO ADS will arise.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
I mean there's been pop-up books for years and I've *never* heard anyone raise a stink about those.
Hell... why even show the TV shows? Why not just show the fscking ads 24/7?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
OK. So you are sick of advertising everywhere short
of grafted directly into your optic nerve, and you
are worried about THAT eventually happening as well. Here is how you personally can stop the deluge:
Step 1. Get yourself a notebook or some other method of writing things down.
Step 2. If you are using any form of ad-blocking
Check out your local Spanish TV. Some of the novelas already have this. It is annoying.
After the initial amusement wore off, I started thinking more about it. Look, I think *all* of us grow tired of all the advertising out there. It might make the author feel self-important to act as though he's the lone dissenter to advertising - but it's just not so. Still, it's not wise to equate advertising with modern culture.
"Pop culture" is a sort of glue that holds us together and helps us make bonds/relationships with others. When you want to strike up a conversation with someone new, you start looking for "common ground". It really does you no good to break into a big discussion on an obscure topic the other party has no previous knowledge of. They'll get bored and walk away. Communications is a 2-way street. You listen and respond, listen and respond.
You can go on attacking popular music ("Fratboy Slim" as you prefer calling him, or "Everqueer"), or lambast the latest Hollywood movie productions and TV series. Whatever floats your boat. Still, it doesn't change the fact that all of these little blips on life's "radar" provide common experiences that people can relate to and talk about in daily life.
Useless junk? Well, sure it is. All entertainment could be classified that way. Sports too, and drinking for pleasure. Humans need breaks. We can't *always* be doing "productive" things. We need some down-time, and some plain old "fun time" to recharge our bodies and minds.
Fast food exists primarily because it's inexpensive + convenient. If McDonalds never ran a television ad again - do you think they'd go away? Doubtful - although they might not like having less opportunity to remind you that they're a breakfast/lunch/dinner option. People would still go there and eat their processed foods. People's tendencies to eat this sort of unhealthy fare are much more complex than mindless brainwashing by commercials. If you think otherwise, I'm afraid you sell all of us short.
but I want my part of the public airwaves back, with interest!
How long before they shrink the show to 1/4 size, partition the screen in a 2x2 grid and continuously run 3 ads alongside the show?
I have notified the police!
OK. So you are sick of advertising everywhere short
of grafted directly into your optic nerve, and you
are worried about THAT eventually happening as well. Here is how you personally can stop the deluge:
Step 1. Get yourself a notebook or some other method of writing things down.
Step 2. If you are using any form of ad-blocking
software, TURN IT OFF. (you heard me, TURN IT OFF)
Step 3. Do you switch channels when the TV commercials come on? STOP DOING THAT.
Step 4. Pay attention to every ad that you see. Write down each and every product that attacks your eyeballs down in your notebook. Keep track of how many times you see each ad.
Step 5. (the hard, but not impossible one). Dont buy *any* product that is listed in your notebook. Period. End of statement. No matter how COOL it is, or how much you think you "need" it.
You dont really need it. You can find a generic version which you havent seen an ad for, are you can (insert violins here) do without it. You can live just fine on rice and beans, and you dont see ads for those.
Step 6 (optional) Every month, go through your notebook, and write a letter to the company whose ad you have seen the most, and tell them exactly
why you havent bought their product.
Step 7. Evangelize. Look like a nut to your coworkers. Convince other people you know to do this. Post your company letters to your LiveJournal or slashdot. Send them to your local newspaper. Be creative. Have fun.
Etc. The point here being that all those advertisers are really under OUR collective control, and if we as a society simply had the guts and self-control to create a NEGATIVE CORRELATION between advertising and sales, most of this advertising would simply wither away.
How do you shop for that special someone who seems to have everything? How about a giant pile of abandoned TV sets?
if people start to ignore the tv ads in the corner, could this eventually become a new form of subliminal messaging? even if you learn to ignore it, you are still watching it.
sorry, i'm not asking this too clearly.
But if you want, you can lick his cum from my sphincter.
'flog a dead horse' principle to it's extreme. Not only is this horse dead, it's a rotted fly-blown carcass that the advertising profession is happily telling clients will get up and walk around again as long as enough money is thrown at it.
Life is too short to waste time absorbing low quality information. You see those old people with their frail bodies and white hair? Must have taken forever for them to reach that condition. Wrong. It all happens very quickly. I can almost feel the time blowing past as I sit here. Not enough time to waste on television.
Driving home tonight past all the houses with windows flickering blue, all those people sitting
quietly with blank faces.
Was visiting earlier. Everyone sitting in the living room watching a sitcom. Noone talking to each other, just staring at the screen and occasionally laughing when the canned laughter kicked in. That isn't how I like to socialize with human beings. The group zombie thing gives me the heebie jeebies. Turn on that foul box when I'm around and I'm gonna pop out of there like a pinched watermelon seed.
It's of no consequence to be upset about network changes that further the degradation of the television experience, because the experience is already toxic. It's like complaining about not getting enough corn with your poop.
...because the day I see one of these ads, i will pawn my telivison set.
If I was a television show producer, and I had a contract with a major network to run a season of my show, I would put in the contract that they must run each episode in it's entirty. Then when one of these ads pops-up, sue the broadcaster for breach of contract because it obscured the episode. Same with the stupid channel logo at the lower right hand side.
The Discovery Channel has been doing this crap for months now and it pisses me off. Showing big stupid animations about Nigel Marvin or Monster Garage (which would be a great show if they didn't do those retarded fake races at the end.)
as long as the ads are on the bottom 1/4th of my screen, why not just tape some cardboard over the bottom quarter of your tv, then take it off when you're watching another channel?
Moo
Me: I can't stand ads. Every goddam product and service is in my face any time I want to interact with anyone, even on the internet! I go to Slashdot to get some news, and make jokes and comments with some interesting people and it's all banner ad this, come look at my...
Slashdot reader: What's that?
Me: What?
Slashdot reader: That line of text right under this comment.
Me: There's nothing there.
Slashdot reader: Take your hand off the screen!
Me: I don't know what you're talking about. That isn't the spot you want to look at. Move along...
[I scurry away]
c-hack.com |
The conditioning protocol for the Ludovico technique now requires the patient to merely observe TV for a short period with a net manyfold increase in efficacy.
No joke. It's an old (but very functional) tv so I'm not too worried about hurting its cosmetic appearance, and there really isn't that much information on the lower 9th of the screen anyway. Programs with scrolling headlines/stock tickers (i.e. news) are a _lot_ more watchable when my eyes aren't constantly being sucked to the bottom the screen. Same thing for shows with network promos, like star trek on TNN. They vertically squish the picture instead of replacing part of it so there's literally nothing missing. I had no idea how much those distractions were interfering with my viewing until I got rid of them.
Personally, I'm very pleased with the results. Of course, I don't watch a great deal of TV and I never use it with tv-out on my computer so this kind of thing may not be right for everyone.
I have difficulty understanding how the idea of interrupting programs at all was ever thought to be acceptable. In Australia, the public broadcaster has no ads, and the next best thing is limited by its charter to five minutes' ads per hour, strictly between programs. These channels are my staples, and I find the commercial networks totally infuriating as they are. (Channel Nine is doing more and more scrolly-ads on top of prime time shows now, too...)
Not only that, but the ads will run during relevant portions of the programming (see a guy shaving in the mirror, get a pop-up ad from a razor company).
GREAT! Most of what I watch is Sci-Fi, so I can't wait to start getting pop-up ads for teleportation devices, Phase III blasters, and vacations to galaxies far, far away!
...when I leave /. - mostly things like caffeinated soap, laser pointers, Bawls.
What could it be? Some sort of retinal link advertising on the page? Hmmmmm...
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
Mark Driver
http://www.blindwino.com/driverjunk15.html
Clutter rises, even in weak ad economy. Study: Nearly 1 in 4 primetime minutes in 2001
I just hook the cable input to a video capture card on my computer and I extract the pixels from the 3/4 of the screen that contain the actual program, then shoot it back on the TV set in real-time.
Of course I'm kidding, but as technology evolves for TV networks, it does for us too! With digital TV knocking at our doors, it shouldn't be difficult to design boxes that manipulate the input and scramble/remove any form of ads.
Watch the TV, Note the ads and then
SEND LETTERS TO THE COMPANIES ADVERTISED.
Tell them in polite terms that you noticed their
add interupting your favorite show and so you will not
be buying their product and you will be asking your
friends and family not to buy either.
This has to be done just as this is starting because once everyone
is advertising this way no one will pay attention to your letter.
I think that sooner or later the CEOs of these companies are going to begin to realize that TV ads are wastes of money (mostly). Then they will really cut their ad budgets. As demand falls, TV stations will also have to cut back. TV shows won't be able to pay their actors a million dollars per episode. The quality of TV shows will fall off and people will watch less TV (which is probably a good thing). Yes, that means that maybe in my lifetime NBC won't be able to pay the talentless, rangeless ensemble cast of Friends the rediculous amounts of money they currently get.
As for me, I am almost to the point where the only shows I watch are on HBO, so the networks can do whatever they want with their commercials -- I'll just stop watching network TV altogether. Though, I will miss Buffy and Scrubs.
Then people use TiVo to block commercials. There are also a lot more channels which divides the revenue up. The total effect is that a commercial is not worth as much on this smaller audience.
So they show more commercials which drive down viewership even more because they have to. Now they will do pop-up adds which will take it further.
I think it is okay for them to show pop-up adds. (I just won't like it.) But it creeps me out when they integrate advertising into the program itself. That's pretty Orwellian. Also this will help bad shows which are conducive to this kind of advertising. (The Other Half, Big Brother.)
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
In general, I'm pro-advertising. I'm not saying I actually like ads or commercials (excepting the Super Bowl of course), but they pay for content so I don't have to. Television comes into my home for just the cost of the necessary bandwidth, and I get shows that networks spent millions of dollars per hour of programming on. I get internet access for, again, just the cost of bandwidth, and things like Slashdot and Sluggy Freelance, things that take lots of work to maintain, at no additional charge.
I'm glad advertisers are paying for all that for me. I know that it comes back in the price of products, but I'm poor and don't buy as much as most people. So I pay less than my "fair share." If I had more money and bought more products, I'd still be happy to pay more than my share, just for the convenience of not having to subscribe to every single TV show I watch and every website I visit individually.
So I'm glad ads exist. I want the existing system of paying for content production to continue, so I faithfully watch commercials and click on banner ads. But I have a major problem with advertising that interferes with content or worse, fails to provide content at all. That defeats the purpose. I have Mozilla set to block all popups. I click "stop" when Yahoo starts loading one of its clickthrough ad pages. I refuse to do business with spammers, telemarketers, or junk mailers. And if I have to, I will refuse to watch any television station that uses this type of advertising, and write a letter to the station notifying them and explaining my reasons.
The original Howling Frog is a fictional character and has no UID.
Next, I figured, nobody would do this, so I did not get a TV hookup after I moved. After being weaned off for a while, the drain this media causes becomes even more intense.
I am not sure, what exposure does long term - if there would be any research on maybe causing attention span decrease or zombylitis, maybe there even is, just won't get any attention.
I don't know why Mr. Driver isn't rich and living it up somewhere, all his works are great and, sure, the way he thinks is slightly cynical and morbid, but that's why I love his work. His writing is as if he's just escaped from hell only to realize that earth is no better. Or at least that's my take on it, and I love it. If you liked this piece, visit his website!
This message was brought to you by the death of 30 brain cells.
Rambling rant alert:
Though I can't find it right now, Cringley wrote an article about why internet advertising has failed. It pretty much boils down to the net not being another way to tell people about things they should buy but rather a way to give people things in return for money. Don't advertise software, sell it. Don't advertise cars, lease them. Don't advertise phone books, sell information.
Is TV going the same way? There was a time when people bought programming by watching ads. Turns out the programming isn't worth the ads anymore (not when we can buy something so we don't have to watch them, anyway). I just got cable last year because it's free but it seems to me the plan was that you paid for the content on cable TV with money rather than by watching ads. But now there's at least as much advertising on cable TV as there is on broadcast TV, and they still want money for it. People are desperate enough for variety to pay for a while but someting has to give.
I refuse to believe there is any technical reason why phone, cable TV, and other data can't all go down the same fiber for less than the cost of all that copper wire and equipment cluttering up my house. Besides, wasn't bandwidth supposed to be too cheap to meter by now? A C Clarke was right - the telcos should have abolished long distance charges for y2k. One cent a minute, any time of the day, anywhere in the world. I'll bet they'd do just fine. Storage has gotten too cheap to meter now. It's going to hit $1/GB in the next month, so I can dump a terabyte into a fileserver and by the time I fill it up, the price will have dropped another order of magnitude. Bandwidth should be the same. Most of my needs can be satisfied by 1 megabit of bandwidth, and all are covered by 10Mb. We've got somewhere around 300,000,000 people in the USA. At 10 dollars per megabit per month, that's 36 billion dollars a year. How much money do you think it would take to give every person in the US a megabit of bandwidth? $100 billion? A certain 5 people could cover that. For a trillion dollars, I think it's too big a project, but I'll bet you could do it for less than that. Remember all that dark fiber everyone's talking about? Well, it's not free to use, but $twenty billion buys an awful lot of network hardware. And $80 billion buys an awful lot of in-home hookups. Someone who has prices for really high-end network equipment run me some numbers and see if I'm talking out my ass or not.
Suppose Germany didn't have a proper name and Germans should call themselves 'Europeans'. Or the Japanese called themselves 'Asians'. How would that be "Insightful"?
In a way, a similar thing has been happening over here in the UK, albeit for channel promotions instead of commercial products. Several channels I can think of on satellite TV promote the next program with a little pop-up icon near the end of the program before.
On British Eurosport, they'll squish the picture up into the top ~75% of the screen, and show some scrolling tickertape promotion (competitions; visit our web site; forthcoming programming) in the bottom banner, then "un-squish" the picture back to 100% again.
It's a little irritating, since the program is rather harder to take seriously at the wrong aspect ratio, and of course suddenly there's this animated thing distracting your attention on screen. Usually lasts no more than 15-30 seconds.
However, I'd feel a whole lot different about it if the technique was being used for commercial advertising.
P.S. Hmmm, just found this page selling advertising, but I think it's for the web site only.
at those who are up in arms about this. TV is mostly shitty, it's not forced on you, and yet it still defines reality for most people by selectively pushing ways of thought that stimulate the libido, and leaving out specific ways of life and thought and break the status quo. Those of you who think I'm full of shit and don't believe that TV is a brainwashing tool are brainwashed. There are infinite things to do in this life. I hope you aren't pulled into a vortex of despair when you find out you spent most of it in front of a glowing brainwashing box.
LS
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
Hi,
Old Amiga genlock supported it, so that sort of advertisement is here in Turkey for 5 years or so.
Now, don't tell me it exists nowhere? It makes us the inventors than? Shame... lol. Its called "banner" in TV industry here. They are 25% higher priced than the "rate" of the program they are in. Like TV guys would know, class gold-a-b-c-d-e
I don't know if it exists other places but I say... If it never existed there, let me give a clue... It sux! It amazingly sux!
Some of them even have "soundfx" in them lol.
I would just simply not watch a show with commercials on at the same time. There are just so few shows worth seeing these days that I will just revert to watching DVDs. But then again, they will probably fuck that up too and have commercials on there as well. Already happened on my The Fast and the Furious DVD (which pissed me off to no end).
I must start wondering if commercials don't work anymore or something. I atleast start to really *HATE* the irritating companies behind the commercials.
Well, now even more reason to not watch TV (which I don't in the first place.) What with mediocre humor, propoganda, news channels that only report on pain and suffering, commericials up the ass, and shitty music channels. Oh yeah, install some popup ads, that'll REALLY get people to watch more TV. Dumbasses.
please no , i don't WANT it. ... i'd hate to see
... horror !!!
ads in web are enough
a popup in a soccer wc or in the summer olympics
imagine that ronaldo is shooting on the goal
or shaq is throwing the ball and suddenly comes
a damn M$ add
[the companys can screw themselves]
I'd tell you the chances of this story being a dupe, but you wouldn't like it.
I hate ads everywhere as much as the next guy, but I actually see a real benefit here. First, there's the obvious benefits to the product companies and the networks. However, you might be overlooking a potential benefit that may arise for the consumer. Consider this: you are a network exec who has to program for a 30-minute time slot. You have no extra ads to plug in because all the companies have paid to have popup ads in designated programs. So what happens? No network will put in off-air time for infomercials in primetime, else the other networks might pick up on valuable ratings. Likewise, networks will likely not pack multiple 18 to 20 minute shows together since the development cost would be the same as current 30-minute shows for each, and thus they would spend more. So what would happen? Perhaps we'd actually be getting full 30-minute shows or close to it -- something that hasn't been seen on television since PBS or the 1950's. - Entropix
I know Karate, Kung Fu, and 47 other dangerous words!
The funny thing is, the United States constitution is the same way, 'cept it is extremely fair and doesn't work remarkably well.
If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
Turn off TV, turn on yourself
It just makes me want to hug the TV licence fee ~$160 per year. This gives me 8 TV channels with no ad breaks - whole uninterrupted movies.
Just imagine a whole evening's viewing without anything allegedly washing whiter.
The UK TV licence, you can't justify it but by gum it works!
When I told this to my co-workers, one of them said her son watches dragonball z, and they recently started to put a 25% of the screen border around the show. What does this border display? Why, commercials of course.
Now, I do not own a TV myself, so I cannot verify this (Who can?). But I can tell you people one thing: I am SO glad I tossed mine out a long time ago.
You know what's on nowadays? Nothing. The news is filled with hooligans who act like comedians rather than giving us any news. Combine this with a lineup of shows that are left wanting, and hey, it's the reason my tv is hardly ever on.
Maybe I need cable. But even then, I'd probably just watch the History Channel, which I don't think is worth $35-60 a month.
Ya know what my TV is for?
Watching DVDs. Oh, shit, I shouldn't have said that. It's only a matter of time before they start putting pop up commercials in those, too.
Fiji has 4 TV channels broadcast - 1 free to air and 3 pay channels (Sky Videocrypt system)
Almost two years ago the free to air channel (Fiji One) decided it would buy a "advertisement" system that displayed banner ads on the bottom and left side of the screen (L shape). The actual non-ad content of the TV dropped by about a third..... needless to say a lot of locals were PISSED OFF about this. Thankfully this was only from early morning until mid afternoon where the TV show content consisted mainly of 20yo Australian TV shows..... Fiji One was only worth watching for the movies and TV series at night where it was back to the ol 3-4 mintues of ads after 10 minutes of shows.
- HeXa
"I'll just do such-and-such and yeah, that'll screw 'em!", here's a wake up call.
Are you in one of the 5,000 households with a Neilsen People Meter? Or failing that, are you in the "sweeps"?
No?
Then your opinion means absolutely nothing. Nil. Zilch. Nada. Zip. Nobody cares if you switch off your TV and go and frolic in the great outdoors. Nobody that matters will ever know, and nobody will change what they're doing because of your actions.
Are we all clear on that now?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
At least it did when I lived there. At 6 oclock you could watch the news, the news, the news, the news or SBC (the news in a foreign language :-). At the weekend you could watch sport, sport, sport, sport or SBC.
At least in the UK they stagger the news programs by half an hour or so, so that if you like news (or comedy or scifi etc.) you can channel hop instead of messing around with video tape.
well it also gets you about a dozen other channels on digital TV, 5 national radio networks and dozens of local radio stations, plus a very good website.
other countries have TV licenses too, and some of their state TV stations carry adverts as well!!!
Just because you are blind, doesn't mean your wife/husband/parter and kids are blind too. The license covers them watching it (as long as they live in the same household). And it does cover radio :-)
Is blacken the edge with a felt tip marker-pen.... oohh sorry wrong group, I thought this was CD Copy prot..... HEY WAIT A SECOND!
already don't watch much tv, what i get is broadcast channels, so now there gonna annoy me even more for the short amounts i watch, i don't think so. Bad enough i get telemarketers, if i could throw my phone out i would but then they email me i toss that to by not even answering any email (muahahaha suckers :P and i told you i checked it 5x a day ). Before i know it microsoft will be leasing out time on our desktops for adds to pop up, ooh he typed in the word thanks ( all 4 coners of the screen pop out greeting card company adds prempting you from your desktop 5 minnutes per each add which your forced to read). WOW what fun i can hardly wait, and every one wonders why opensource is nice ( humm annoying adds server running in my process list kill -9 ).
I think I've been quite successful not to watch commercials for two years. I got rid of my TV set. Actually it broke and I didn't replace it.
These days I watch movies and my favourite sci-fi series DVDs on my computer which has pretty good stuff attached to secure comfortable viewing of such media.
Look ma, no in-between-ads!
News you ask? I get plenty of that at work. Working in a newspaper has its advantages...
I see people say complaining about video games and saying how they better not touch them with adverts.. but how many of you would rather the main character in a game ... lets say duke nukem ...break into a bar, shoot some pigs up, then afterwards look around the room seeing the bartender shaking in his boots.. then hear duke say "gimme a shot of tequila". I'd rather he say "gimme some jose cuervo". and he drinks it and moves on.. simple nonchalant advertising in video games make them a tad more real and more fun knowing that he's drinkin a coke and not a soft drink or a "cuke" (like sorny or panaphonic)
I just hope we're not forced to see ads during load times one day.
Gah.
I used to think the "blurbflies" (genetically engineered flies that buzz out adverts) in Jeff Noon's "Nymphomation" were a hilarious satire on intrusive advertizing.
Now I'm starting to fear someone at one of the ad agencies that come up with ideas like TV popups during shows will read Noon's book, think blurbflies are a _great_ idea, and rush to contact some Biotech company specializing in designer lifeforms...
*shudder*
All the news I want to see I get online or on JJJ (Australia's national alternative radio station - ad-free).
I actively filter ads with my squid proxy so I don't get them online either.
Life is good, ad-free.
David de Groot Snr Systems Engineer
I have thought for YEARS that breakfast TV should have ads in the lower quarter of the screen, INSTEAD of ad breaks. How annoying is it to rely on the 'clock on the telly' all morning, only to have it disappear every now and then for some damn ads!
Having the ads scrolling / running at the foot of the screen would be cool - not in something like the simpsons, but in most crap it'll be fine!
you only pay subscription costs if you want cable or satalite channels, bbc 1 & 2, itv, channel 4 and channel 5 plus a number of digital channels are covered by the license fee
About the only thing I watch on TV are movie channels, the history channel, and the Sci-Fi channel. I don't give a rat's ass whether NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, WB, and UPN fill 59 out of every 60 seconds with pure advertising. I don't waste my time watching their crap anyway.
About the only thing that is going to result from this is that the channels that DON'T piss off their viewers are the ones that people are going to watch, even if the actual quality of their programming is inferior. Of course I don't expect television execs to understand this, but then again I really don't care. Television is one of those activities that I spend the least ammount of time doing. If it were to diappear off the face of the earth I don't think I'd miss much.
Lee
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
I just cancled TV service two months ago. I have found that I am more productive, and generally do not miss TV, although I do watch movies.
Fuck ads. I too am sick of advertisment. I wish I could gather all of the advertising execs in a single room and well, heh, you know. Personally I don't think I have bought one thing because of advertisment in over a year.
I block pretty much all advertisments on the web, just by using simple image size filters, and a somewhat large blocklist. Unfortunately I do receive spam but all of that garbage finds it self sent to digital oblivian rather quickly.
...i don't watch tv
Well the subject says it all, but
BBC BBC BBC BBC BBC BBC
You are required to own a television license if you use television receiving equipment to watch or record BBC channels. If you don't ever tune into a BBC channel then you don't have to pay at all.
FWIW I mostly watch BBC channels on cable because a) no commercial ads and b) quality of programming tends to be higher than for ITV/C4/C5/other.
no ads in the middle of programs, not cutting just to fit in an extra 4 mins of adverts. not bad for £200 or so a year i reckon (comes with free radio too!)
Most people don't actually associate products on the shelf with specific ads anyway, rendering the value of airtime lower than broadcasters would like. In addition, the chances of your watching an ad for a product or service you actually desire is minimal, which over the course of a few ads puts your brain into "you don't need to watch the ads" mode, engaging the finger to turn it over during the breaks (this has been proven).
The pop-up ads on Discovery/Eurosport tend to last around 15 seconds and mostly refer to upcoming programming, which I actually don't mind since I never look at the paper/web based schedules anyway.
I doubt many people will turn off programs because of the newly widespread popup ads since they still want to watch the program, however it the ad takes up more than 1/4 of the screen then the viewer will likely believe that it is distracting and that they are 'losing' some of the program picture, thus the complaints will fly.
The problem is, people are highly unlikely to take any more notice of popup ads than they are or traditional ads today, especially when you factor in the actual purchase figures.
When a consumer wants something and can pay for it, s/he goes and get it from a supplier based on price, value, what it says on the packaging, and occassionally recommendations from friends, reviews or sales staff. The idea that they are influenced by television or radio advertising is somewhat invalid since the telly ad doesn't figure in the consumer's mind at the time of product descision or purchase.
The only thing I have ever seen a television campaign influence is the amount of shelf space a product carries. This is bar far a more powerful weapon to the producer. The only thing an ad does for the consumer is advise him/her that the product exists, and perhaps a few well-placed specifications, which are of course normally twisting meanings and words which the consumer knows anyway and thus hold little respect for.
I would prefer a BBC licensing system myself, purchasing a license to watch telly without adverts, but it would need to be on a sliding scale, you pay half the full cost you see some types of advertising but not all of them (i.e. a license to have the popups turned off).
That 107 pounds is an annual fee and you get TV radio and possibly the best internet news site ever www.bbc.co.uk/news.
Apart from that all you need is a TV and an arial.
THROW YOU T.V. OUT!! There hasn't been any good programming on it since ... better yet... READ A BOOK! They havn't put ads in that yet!
My TV. was RIP since 1997 and I've never been happier. The only time I see a T.V. is at work when someone in the lunch room turns it on.
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
I seriously hope they drive television straight into the gutter, to the point where any sane person knows better than to turn it on in the first place. Talk TV all day long with crawlers for cheap diamond rings on top, popups for ab crunchers below, and more bleeps on the sound track than words you can hear.
Commercial advertising was a Faustian bargain to begin with, and now the devil is collecting interest as well.
the last television i bought was from Walmart for a little over a hundred bucks, i havent needed a new one yet, but when i start seeing shit like this during prime time TV watching right in the middle of the show i will take that cheap TV and throw it in the trash and NEVER buy another television ever again and FORBID TVs in my house...
i don't watch commercial tv. so i don't care what they do. i watch only cable and dvds :) all on my computer because i don't own a tv set.
All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost.
1. The only way to keep information free [beer/speech] is to support web content with advertising.
2. The Internet is collapsing because web advertisers won't pay site owners.
3. The web advertising market collapsed because the ads are too easy to ignore.
4. Intrusive advertising is annoying and should be stopped.
5. Go back to step 1.
what will be needed then is a tv mfg by mozilla. no more pop-ups!!!
Just as the RIAA and the major recording labels are pushing away their customers by shoving their outdated copyright models down consumers' throats, the TV industry is ready to push away its viewers by forcing even MORE advertising on us.
I don't like to watch commercials, nobody really does. But you still here the messages when you're in the kitchen grabbing a drink, etc.
And product placement in sports and movies has sure worked well, so why can't it be the money saver in regular TV programming?
In fact, there would be more realism with product placement in all TV shows. It's much more realistic to see somebody drinking a Coca-Cola than an all read can with no labels!
10 years from now, tv will be dead because people will have given up on it. People will go back to reading books.
If ads begin obscuring a show I watch, I will stop watching it. I don't watch ST:TNG anymore due to the awful squish-o-vision the network employs to squeeze crap in at the bottom. If it happens to anything I value watching (ie, the stuff I got cable for) I will cancel my cable subscription.
I don't watch much TV, and I skip over the ads of what I do watch with my Tivo. Ad-free TV has been nice, and I'd even be willing to pay for the shows I enjoy (one at a time-- I'm not paying for all the crap to get a few good shows a la cable), but if the options are ad-covered, distorted-aspect-ratio crap or nothing, nothing wins hands down.
I remember something similar happenining with Cable TV programmes/Movie tapes from India. It initially started with a narrow annoying strip of ads (much like the stock quotes one finds in some Cable TV channels) and later began to cover more and more of the screen area. During the peak some programmmes had around 1/2 to 1/3rd of the screen space covered by various types of annoying ads (much like the web banner ads ). Finally everyone had enough of all this - Indian courts stepped in ... to restore the balance :-)
SuperBowl...? Everyone watches the commercials. The execs think "everyone will be watching, we have to make this good" the consumers are saying "this will be good, therefore we will watch."
How about those "Funniest Commericals" television shows where all the content is funny commecials. How about those small clips passed around in email?
If a commerical is well done and entertaining, it will get viewer following -- and the product will stick. If it's just annoying in-your-face product announcement, people can (and will) move on.
Get realistic.
there will be...
No there won't. I'll turn TV off permanently before I endure that crap.
Actually, I'll give it a month, and diligently note every company that takes advantage of this, and I'll make sure to let them know that their annoying practice just cost them a customer.
If TPTB say they intend to continue with this annoying practice after that month, I will be tuning out.
In past stories about PVRs, slashdot posters always got modded way up for saying something along the lines of:
"It's not my fault the TV networks' business model is obsolete. If I want to skip commercials I will and if the networks don't like it they should stop whining and come up with a better business model."
Well, here's that better business model you asked for. If you don't like it, stop whining and come up with a better PVR!
Some of us have this thing called a government. You see, you can't just run a TV station whenever you like to - you gotta get a licence. And the public have a say in the licence. It is called democracy. It works like this. TV company decides to put ads inside programs. TV station licencing authority say "no you don't" and revoke TV station licence. TV station realises that ads inside programs is NOT a good idea, because they no longer have a business.
It is just a matter of deciding whether the public or the TV companies run the government. If the TV companies run the government, then you DON'T have a democracy - if you do have a democracy, why can't you revoke their licences until they behave themselves?
I am anarch of all I survey.
This is a fabulous idea. Yes, tickers during normal programs can be frustrating. I know some news channels have at least 2 tickers at the bottom and some worthless logos on the right, leaving about 1/4 to 1/3 of the screen for the actual news program. This really sucks for small or far away screens. But think of the Weather Channel. One line at the bottom, constantly scrolling weather information.
:-) To sum it up, the current approach to advertising doesn't work. It's past time for advertisers to wake up and try something new. I think this idea is a decent start.
If a station used this format to scroll interesting information during their ads, I would still *want* to watch during the commercials and I expect advertisers would appreciate this.
Unfortunately, it isn't about what the consumer wants. Rather than being tactful and graceful, they are attempting to force the ads on the viewership. Hello?! Do you want people to watch your program or not? Play nice! I get offended and change the channel whenever I am blatantly being treated as a piece of meat.
So, this is turning into a rant. Enough from me.
Don't the people making these commercials and pushing this crap go home and sit down to watch TV and hate the commercials just as much as you and I? Can someone explain why humans do stuff like this to other humans, much less themselves?
Aren't these folks retaining some semblence of human-ness? It's like, if you piss in the pool it's messed up for YOU too.. not just the other people in the pool.
I guess I just don't get it.
Vortran out
Knowledge is like ignorance.. too much can be just as bad as not enough.
I really find it hard to believe that anybody watches movies on commercial TV anymore.
We also watch few made-for-TV anythings, other than on PBS. First of all: most of 'em are garbage anyway. Add to that the commercial breaks...
There are a few, very few, sitcoms and so-on that we watch. The networks start throwing pop-up adverts in those and I'll quit watching those as well.
You don't even want to get me started on what passes for "news" on commercial TV.
We have no cable. No satellite TV. We've discussed it, on and off, through the years. We just cannot justify the monthly charge for what little those services have to offer. Add to that that pretty much (?) all of the non-premium programming has adverts too... (Yeah, pay for it and get subjected to the frequent and annoying commercial interruptions. What a deal!)
I figure the commercial networks, cable and satellite companies, and marketing droids are actually doing us a favor. Too much TV is simply not good for one. Anything in excess isn't good for one. And with TV, that point-of-excess comes pretty quick, I think. So by making television odious in all of its forms and aspects, they're driving us away from it.
Wish I could find a stop smoking program that was as effective.
If this happens, I will join the effort to port mozilla to TV. But then again, on second thought, I have been living without TV for almost 2 years now. I get more time to play Quake :)
http://www.ajaygautam.com
Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family, Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life. People think it's all about misery and desperation and death and all that shite, which is not to be ignored, but what they forget - is the pleasure of it. Otherwise we wouldn't do it. After all, we're not fucking stupid.
When our neighbors first got cable it was something like $50/mo and it was 24/7 commercial-free. It had all kinds of cool channels but nobody could afford it - we just got normal channels off the rabbit ears. Then the price for cable dropped and dropped until it was in the mid-20's/mo for a typical market. And the commercials started to show up. Then they regulated it and now I'm paying $75/mo for cable, and only because the wife just *HAS* to watch Sex and the City. $75/mo. Over 5 years, we're paying $4500 for 1 TV show. Gah.
Hi. I work for ABC as an advertising programmer. I would like to address this if I can.
We here at ABC, as do the majority of other airwave networks, feel that advertising is indeed being ignored. How do you think that we pay for our programming, our expenses in marketing and transmission, etc...? Through advertising.
With new technologies like 'TIVO' type boxes with commercial skip, VCR's with similar features, and home built computers doing the same, we are loosing revenue and the ability to market and price advert spots during commercial breaks. Many companies are now questioning our pricing schemes for advertisement, given the lack of attention (and thus impact) that regular ad spots get.
We tried some ad placement in regular shows, such as product pans and what not, but they are not very effective. We are still fighting the adless technology recorders coming out today, but this is simply a move to increase the value of the service we offer, that which pays our bills as a company.
So go on, whine and moan, but don't expect a change any time soon. Television is NOT free... you pay for it by watching our ads and hopefully engaging in commerce with the sponsors.
People like me are paid to come to forums like this, mostly lurking, and read up on how a specific segment of the target audience responds to ideas and change. I have to tell you though, in the end, we disregard the extremists views and the niche cultures because we simply cannot cater to everyone and some people should not be catered too.
When we skip commercials we are stealing. Where was the same sense of morality, for TV executives each time they decided to reduce content in favor of advertising.
Pop-up ads in books
Pop-out ads in scrub along the singletrack
Javascript pop-ups attached to all emails from Anglefire, Geocities, Tripod or any of those other ISPs that suck.
Ads playing on the LCD display on my new car stereo (hopefully never, but some of those units with a full screen probably will.)
Waterpipes specially tuned to play jingles instead of the usual whine while I'm taking a shower
Advertisements in parking lots which pop-up when you drive over a plate
Articles on slashdot promoting ThinkGeek (naw, it'd never happen, right?)
Note: those cards that fall out of magazines do that by design. The idea is it falls out and you have to pick it up and you'll see it, so they're probably the first incarnation of pop-up ads.
One good thing about being a vegetarian... when they have someone working in a grocery store offering samples of fried sausages I say, "No thanks, I don't eat dead animals, it's unhealthy." Just a little way to fight back... maybe if I started a line of clothing... yeah... "Espouse Pepsi!", "Do whatever, but all shoes are pretty much the same", "Make your own snacks! It's fun and they taste the way you want them to and nobody will ever change the recipe!" Nah.. too wordy.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
When I tell most people this, their eyes pop out of their heads as they realize that a large portion of their daily lives have no meaning to me. "No, I have no idea what happened on Buffy last week." They take it as a value statement. It's like I'm saying "You suck." Actually I like most of you, it's TV that sucks.
The average person (in the US) spends 4 hours watching TV a day, but there are real reasons to keep watching:
* Connection to others. TV creates social connections, even between people with little else in common. Feeling 'out of touch' with others would then require you to find other social connections.
* Communication to the masses. Corporations and Governments use TV as a way to send out their messages to mass populations. You might miss the important messages from these organizations if you didn't watch.
* Introduction to new products. Often TV is used to launch new products and services to major markets. How would you knew a new product was introduced if you didn't watch TV?
* It occupies your time. It fills an average of 28 hours a week. If you eliminated it, you'd be force to do something else with that time.
So when commercials are increased on Public TV (and cable too, you actually pay to watch those commercials), I don't worry. It's a balance issue. The commercials need to pay for the air time, staff, actors, equipment... well basically everything in the broadcasters budget. Billions and billions of dollars. If advertising doesn't work to make the advertisers the money back (plus profit) then they have do something else.
The question you should be asking yourself, however, is 'how well do advertisements work?' When a corporation is willing to pay billions of dollars to get ad space, they are getting a return on that investment. You are buying that product... when they advertise to you on TV. Do you remember making that choice?
Cheers.
"...placement and the 30 second commercial spot are not getting the respect they deserves from us consumers"
Awww... Are profits down? People aren't paying attention to their already intrusive ads? Gee, imagine that. As if interupting your favorite show with 2-5 minutes worth of commercials weren't enough. Or those banners at the bottom of the screens. But pop-ups? I'm picturing MTV-style factoids popping up like the videos...
"Lara!!! He's dead!"
"No! That can't be!!"
"Maybe you should sit down..."
POP! *Buy Sealy chairs and matteresses from Furniture Direct and save 50%*
"Are... Are you sure it was him?"
"Yes, Lara... I'd recognize that sport coat anywhere."
POP! *Mens sports wear at everyday low prices from Jackson's Supply*
I'd like to think no self respecting network would impliment this, but who am I kidding...?
You need a FREE iPod Nano
You're going to kill us all with your pollution anyway. Just say no to Kyoto and keep drivin' them gas guzzlin' SUV's. You president is proud.
"How did he die John? How!?"
"It looks like he was shot to death... Probably a drive-by, Lara..."
POP! *Glock semi-automatic 9mm pistols, ammunition and parts availible at Al's Guns and Supply!*
Sorry. I had ta ^__^
You need a FREE iPod Nano
This isn't new, TV companies have been doing that kind of thing when transmiting soccer games for a very long time, and at least here in Colombia they have been throwing out that kind of ads in the middle of tv shows for at least a couple of years.
Of course it's really annoying, and combined with the worst programming anyone can think of, it's the reason that the overly expensive cable and satellite tv keep growing pretty fast on this country.
Slashdot lets its readers choose whether to get ads, or pay directly. TNT's viewers are not given that choice.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Well, if it's going to be standardized as the lower-quarter of my TV, I'll go out and buy a piece of poster-board or something and hang over top of it. Something easy to move out of the way to see all my PSX2 screen or whatever. Or if I get a fancy enough big-screen TV next year, use the resize features that let you stretch the TV picture to fit a widescreen, also stretch it vertically to push that lower quarter below the visible portion on screen. And that'd also help put the sideways stretch back into proper proportions so people don't look really fat.
I've already been sick of some channels advertizing their other shows, or even the one they're already playing in the lower-right corner. Because you know the annoying semi-transparent network logo just wasn't enough. How I long for the days before they started abusing those poor genlocks 24/7...
How long before we have the Futurama style advertizing where they intrude into our dreams at night? And when will they realize that I don't buy somethnig just because I saw it on TV?? Maybe someday our economy will change to the point that they automatically deduct money from our accounts without our knowledge or permission and ship stuff to us? The way things are going, I think it's only a matter of time before something that rediculous is legalized...
... Advertisements above urinals cut down on graffiti. By something like 90%. It distracts the 'user' long enough for them to finish. I just thought you might want to know. ;)
My cube. My friend. My solace. My prison.
Well thank-you-very-much-mister-sunshine fancy-pants! I think I'll just go kill myself now!
My cube. My friend. My solace. My prison.
"Yes, they believe exactly that, and they're desperate to make sure that you're looking at advertizing constantly." 'They' will not be satisfied until the entire fscking planet is covered with their ads and is generating revenue for them. What gives them the belief that they own every square inch of everything? They have the money to buy the advertizing rights to it.
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
Im not that old on 24 but I still remeber when cable ment no commericals. We pay for TV and yet they still make us watch commericals for the new tampax. What is wrong here.
well it also gets you about a dozen other channels on digital TV, 5 national radio networks and dozens of local radio stations, plus a very good website.
None of which I watch, listen to or surf to. I'm one of those weird people who actually prefers Sky One and Sci-Fi for viewing, never listens to radio (as far as I'm concerned all the radio stations in the UK stink), and I don't need anything BBCi has to offer. At least with sky I get a choice wheter or not to pay for the extra channels or nothing for the free ones - with the BBC I have to 'subscribe' even when I don't use any of thier services.
At some point, somewhere, the entire internet will be found to be illegal.
Puffy vests? Dude made his own writing too dated!! Everybody knows puffy vests are out!!
My DirectTV has a feature called InterActive TV. It pops up to let me know that it is active during certain programs. It may contact anything from an ad to information about the program, when it will air again, ect....
Wish I could turn it off. I hate having it pop up and ruin my Twilight Zone eps I am recording for the future of mankind!
Now they get their TV audio fee for free !
They're stealing from the rest of us! (Well, the rest of you Brits, that is.)
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
You're right about that. Every once in a while a dramatic sales shift can be directly attributed to advertising. But now that Sprite is #3, how do you measure the effectiveness of the current ads? Are they maintaining the product image and encouraging customer loyalty? Or have the earlier ads converted people, so you could cut the ad budget and not see a drop in sales? Is Kobe Bryant worth his endorsement money? Is replaying the first "Obey Your Thirst" ads from 4 years ago having the desired effect?
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
http//injoke.org -- Culling The Interesting
If you won't eat it, we'll force it down your throat! Some guy at Time-Warner recently said that the average American would pay $250 a year to get the kind of programming they do now for free without the adds. That's a little over $20 a month, about the same as an AOL account. Where do I sign up?
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
I had, overall, very good parents. All parents make some mistakes, and they've long admitted to that being one of them. Which I suppose is one of the big diffrences between good and bad parents. They all screw up, but good parents will eventually admit to it.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
I bought a new Sony Vvega and it's never shown a Commercial (really) since I've owned it.
It doesn't get HBO, or even the local channels. It doesn't get anything but Playstation 2, XBox, Gamecube, Dreamcast, N64, Saturn, Turbo Graphics 16, SNES, Genesis -- and -- uh -- sometimes my Laptop.
So, you see, my television doesn't really show commercials, unless you count the radio commercials in Grand Theft Auto 3.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
TV is going to be even easier not to watch!!
Who's Adele?
Actually that episode was originally called "The F Word"...I wouldn't be surprised if that was yet another cut by The N.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Turkish TV channels have been doing this for a looong time, especially during soccer games, which have very high ratings and not so many long enough intervals for a 30 second commercial block.
I love the beer commercials during the games, works like a subliminal for me, since I can't get my eyes off the game long enough to notice that there is a beer commercial covering 1/4 of the screen.
If this happens... well, it's really, really not going to help anyone, and will seriously p!ss off lots and lots and lots of people who aren't getting rich from the advertising fees.
Thank Fate for the BBC.
Miri it is whil Linux ilast...
I get those anyway - it's not illegal to listen to the radio or use the website (read: unenforcable). As for digital TV, well - I have no idea what goes on there because I dont watch TV.
With no ads, there would...
Be no broadcast TV. If they are no ads, there is no incoming revinue. Expect them all to work for free?
Be more expensive cable. Think of all of the "premium" stations. Willing to pay that for EACH of the 121 stations?
Remember Max Headroom.. Blipverts? Compress an add into a few seconds so it is subliminaly received.... scary.
(1st sig) If this were a snappy sig, you'd be reading it right now. (2nd sig) I'm a karma whore. >Insert FUD here
Not to smart are they, people are showing strong signs of being sick of too many adds, their solution shove more of it up their noses, good one. So cleaver decrease the value to pain ratio (i.e. increase the noise to signal ratio), now what will people do; ofcourse they'll watch less, or if like here in oz (Australia) you have a free to air service with no adds except between programmes, and no comercial ones at all, you can do what my parents do, and I nearly do (except for Trek), not watch comercial TV.
in my life God comes first.... but Linux is pretty high after that
Francis Smit
...and a lifetime of harrassment if you dont want a license.
Don't forget the banner ads on Comp-USA checkout video displays, which consume about a third of the monitor. The targeted promotions printed on your supermarket receipt. The ad printed on one side of your New York City Metro card. The numerous pages of employment ads near the front and back of all the paperbacks published by vault.com. Product placement in many video games.
Boy, they think all TV viewers are Joe Sixpacks who would bend over like goatse and take this up their ass. Glad I hardly watch the shit.
They disturb our viewing, which most of the time is already mind-numbing enough, at the crucial parts so that we can watch shallow ads targeting mass idiocy...and I must be misunderstanding something...they want respect for that! All day long they try to convince us we're not pretty enough, we don't eat their foods, buy their clothes, and now they want more because we might not want to view commercials that do not pertain to us individually. Screw them! There must be something to prevent this from occuring
This is already happening in Europe. I live in Finland and watch Viasat. They have annoying popups coming every know and then, blocking 25% of the screen, asking to click OK to get more info. Truly annoying, and the technology isn't apparently ready cause the sound stops for a few seconds after the popup has dissapeared.
tv sucks anyway. except for simpsons and family guy but family guy stankin' got cancelled. maybe the adds were payed for by public libraries (although i don't know how they would pay for it, seeing as how....) to anger regular tv watchers, and change their mindset into going to libraries and reading more often. maybe this is a crazy scheme....or maybe not. maybe i'm just sleep deprived and tired and rambling. yes, that's the only factual thing is this whole non-sense. case closed...
-apg