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Advertising Comes to DVR Owners
bill_kress writes "According to Reuters, television studios are finally trying to target DVR viewers with advertising. The effort, however, seems rather backwards — They are extending the same exact image across the entire 30 second commercial so that TIVO Viewers will be forced to view at least one frame. Wouldn't it be better to add value to the viewing experience instead?" From the article: "The advert for its new drama 'Brotherhood' will show a single image on the screen for the entire 30-second slot, and therefore retain its "sales message" when viewed even at the 12-times speeds enabled by Sky+ and other digital recorders, also known as personal video recorders, or PVRs. Advertisers have been racing to find ways to get messages through as higher numbers of consumers watch TV programs when they want using such recorders, often skipping the commercials."
Gee, that won't upset the standard viewing public at all... will it?
Maybe they could play an emergency test tone over the entire 30 seconds, just to get everyone's attention.
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I like this idea. Sounds like a commercial-flagging algorithm could easily detect it and skip every single frame in the recording. Did I mention I have a mythbox?
Tivo: Go go gadget 30 second skip!
MythTV: Go go gadget commercial detection and skip!
Windows DVRs: Uh... Go go gadget DRM! Aw, crap!
Ryan Fenton
"Wouldn't it be better to add value to the viewing experience instead?" only if your primary concern was the viewer instead of advertising fees
+1 fashionably cynical
So, how long is it going to take for PVR makers to develop software that reads the AUDIO stream and returns you to your regularly scheduled programming when the waveform peaks go from clipped to normal? I don't want to jump 30 seconds forward. I want to skip the commercials.
I say "Bring it on!" If all advertisers did this, then it will be easier for my DVR to detect comercials so I don't have to see them at all!
You just have to wonder just how dense the network executives really are. I wonder when it will finally sink in that saturating your programming with advertising to the point that the viewing audience revolts is ultimately counter-productive. They should take it as a clue that if viewers are willing to spend several hundred dollars to avoid ads using specialized hardware, there is something seriously wrong with your marketing plan.
When all else fails, run.
GE did something infinetely more intelligent a few months ago.
The last second of their ad was a set of single frames with interesting information. To see what was there, you had to repeatedly watch the ad until you managed to hit pause at just the right time so you could single-step through the hidden content.
That way, (at least some) TiVo owners ended up spending 15 minutes on a 30-second ad. Now THAT's creative!!
If I see a good, or interesting looking add I will stop to watch it. A great example of this is the add with Abe Lincon and a monkey playing jump rope. You can't just wizz by Abe Lincon and a monkey playing jump rope, you have to see what it's all about. Turnes out the add was for sleeping pills.
If it's dead, you killed it.
Isn't this how it always is though? When Cable TV first arrived it was touted as having no commercials and then they came. We used to have the luxury of not watching commercials at the movie theatre because we paid to be there, now we have to watch the same trailer for the same bad tv show over and over again while we wait for the movie to start. The "no commercials" idea is IMHO a bait and switch maneuver that for some reason always works on consumers. The ridiculous number of commercials is the main reason I don't watch tv anymore. There are some shows I might like to see, but I'm not willing to sit through all the commercials to see them. Of course, it doesn't help that most of the shows are bad shows with excessively overpaid actors which brings us back to the insane amount of commercials, they have to pay for the talent, or lack thereof.
It sounds like the perfect signal for PVR software to watch for in order to skip commercials automatically.
.....PVR's that skip 31 Seconds.
One definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior expecting a different outcome. It looks like advertising companies are functionally insane. Advertising on television is dead; people have moved on. (Hell, I don't even watch or pay for TV anymore).
Time to find a new way to get paid to annoy millions of people.
Insisting on "correct" English is like saying that there is only one, definitive recipe for chili.
(I know your all gearing up to whine about how hard mythtv is to install,... then you probably havent tried Knoppmyth, or the Hyams Fantastic How-to )
This is just stupid. I consider it a brute force attack at DVR owners, however, I still might miss this commercial thanks to the hidden 30 sec skip feature of the TiVo. (While watching a show: SELECT PLAY SELECT 3 0 SELECT. Your skip 30 min button will now do 30s instead. Repeat whenever an update resets functionality.) While these adds might be reach more DVR owners, they are going to need the most entertaining audio script in the world or they are going to be COMPLETELY boring for average TV viewers.
There is a far more preferable category of commercials targetted at DVR owners: The ones that make you want to stop for them. Some commercials you merely stop for because they either interest you(car commercials when you are car shopping) are are simply well scripted and entertaining(Some of the recent Mac commercials). Then there was also a novel series of commercials that GE was running which had a series of text heavy images that were shown for only a few frames each near the end of the commercial. The point was to create a humorous Easter Egg for DVR owners who would be inclined to pause and advance frame by frame.
If this signature is witty enough, maybe somebody will like me.
Just make ads twelve times slower so they are shown with normal speed when fast-forwarding. (-:
Stargate sg-1 recently featured an online companion to the current episode that was only visible while the show was actually being aired. This seems like a very simple and effective way to encourage people to watch the show as it airs and not to TiVo it for later viewing.
"Anyway, long story short... is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling...." - Abraham Simpson
If you really want people to watch your advertisements, make them _want_ to watch. Make them interesting. People will go out of their way to watch them at least once, and share copies with all of their friends.
Of course, the down side to this is that you may have to actually pay someone to do the job.
Bah, I'll just keep myself full of beer so that I don't understand the visual even if I see it.
Budweiser
Budweiser
Budweiser
Budweiser
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Budweiser
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that I watch my shows months after they are recorded.
I mean, I'd really hate to be suckered in by an advertisement that was actually relevant!
But, by watching everything months later I can be sure that any shows being advertised will have been shown long ago... and, like every other frikken commercial... of absolutely no use to me.
So, until I'm:
1) geriatric
2) female
3) senile
4) stupid
5) impotent
6) over weight
7) bored
8) unable to solve my own problems
9) unable to read
etc...
I think I'll just keep skipping commercials. Because, at best... they are a complete waste of my time.
--Phillip
Can you say BIRTH TAX
"designed to combat viewers using digital recorders to avoid commercials."
It's on biatch!
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My child is pretty rarely exposed to television advertising.
Mine actually scream for me to come and ff when commercials come on.
(The little one cries until the show comes back on!)
I actually built a mythbox specifically so I could record the kid's shows and edit out all the crap... now I can set them down and let them watch without the commercials.
I've got one of these that I stuff full of kid shows (and stuff for mom & dad too) for when we go traveling. Very nice to be in a hotel room and not be at the mercy of broadcast television!!
--Phillip
Can you say BIRTH TAX
I pay an extra $10 a month to rent the DVR from Comcast. What do I have to do to not watch commercials? How much will it cost? Do I have to buy a 12-pack of Pepsi, 2 pairs of Levis, a Toyota Camry, and a pack of Charmin Toilet Tissue every month before the advertisers will leave me alone?
I'm paying money to not watch commercials. I'm not downloading pirated films or rogue recordings. What the hell is the deal?
No need to hold your breath -- it's been done already by a commercial DVR vendor, and the end result is still very much available. Just check out eBay for any 5000-series ReplayTV unit (not 5500-series, which dropped the auto-skip feature).
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
If it takes moving pictures of a certain type to keep your kid happy, it's time to get them outside more and away from the babysitting box.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
Actually, they are smart enough to know they are watching a specific show... and that they aren't sitting there to have shit^H^H commercials stuffed into their head.
And, you can't always send the kids outside either.
There is only one of me... mom works too... and someone has to cook dinner.
I can't cook dinner and watch the kids at the same time.
And neither can you.
So, yeah. Sometimes they get to watch the tube. If you don't like it... tough.
They aren't your kids.
--Phillip
Can you say BIRTH TAX
And what happened to reading. Kids who read on their own before preschool end up with significantly better vocabularies and tend to be much more articulate--they also have a lot less trouble with schoolwork.
It requires a lot of work on the parents' part to read to the kid every night from the time they are a baby to get them to take to it, but if that's what it takes to have a smart kid, isn't it worth it?
a gross classification for the ad (gambling, liquor, sex, stuff I don't care about)
Bender, is that you?
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.