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Netflix Cuts Out Over 6 Days Of Commercials From Your Life Per Year, Compared To Cable TV (businessinsider.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Netflix knows their customers hate ads. "We know one of the benefits of an ecosystem like Netflix is its lack of advertising," Howard Shimmel, a chief research officer at Time Warner, told Bloomberg last year. "Consumers are being trained there are places they can go to avoid ads." In response to Netflix's advertising policy, many networks have actually cut back on the amount of ads they show in an effort to lure back in the younger Netflix generation. CordCutting.com crunched some numbers and found that each Netflix subscriber saves themselves about 158.5 hours of commercials per year. Here is how they figured that out: "First, it took Netflix's recent 75 million subscriber mark. Then, it combined that with a quote from CEO Reed Hastings that said subscribers stream 125 million hours every day. That means every subscriber streams about 1 2/3 hours per day. Then it looked at Nielsen data, which showed that the typical hour of cable TV includes 15 minutes and 38 seconds of commercials. If you combine that with the Netflix subscriber data, then you get that each subscriber avoids around 158.5 hours per year of commercials -- if they were watching Netflix instead of cable TV," writes Nathan McAlone via Business Insider.
Between Netflix and Adblocker, your brain is maybe in need of a wash.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Netflix shows have a ton of product placement, just because the ads are on while the show is running doesn't mean it isn't there.
"the typical hour of cable TV includes 15 minutes and 38 seconds of commercials"
Unless you have a DVR. It takes me about 30 seconds to skip past those 15 minutes of commercials on my TiVo. News is about the only thing I watch live.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
"commercial breaks also gives the opportunity to mentally disengage ..."
Commercials are the opportunity to get some bread to go with the circus.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Hey now, don't trash cable companies. They perform a useful service. They sell me a decently fast net connection so I can watch all my tv on Netflix!
Average American watches about 5 hours per day. You're the weird one.
Nothing wrong with being weird. Remember that if you vote that also makes you weird; if you read then you're weird; if you're on slashdot then you're so weird that tofurkey seems normal.
Oh, and commercial breaks also gives the opportunity to mentally disengage from the tv screen
You know what else does that? The pause button. We use that when we want to talk about what we're watching. Then we un-pause, and go on watching it... on our schedule.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I sincerely do not understand the mentality of people that experience moral outrage at commercials. My son is the same way, and he can't explain it to me.... but commercials make him feel like his head is going to explode. He cannot even be in the same room as someone who is sitting quietly without even being phased by the fact that their entertainment happens to have been interrupted by a commercial.
I frankly suspect it's some sort of power trip.... because commercials may represent a lack of control over what is happening to someone while they are intending to watch a program.
Personally, I figure it's just television... and not worth getting upset over.
I pay only marginally more than zero attention to commercials anyways... how can I get upset over something that I barely notice except when I pay explicit attention to it?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
True.... but the pause button is an active disengagement... you may pause in the middle of somebody saying something, for example, even without meaning to. Commercial breaks are, at least, usually actually *between* scenes... and give you the opportunity to disengage from the TV without having to concentrate over when to hit that pause button.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
We have been using MythTV for over a decade. The automatic commercial detection is pretty good, but we usually take a minute to set cutpoints (tweaking the detected commercials), and then transcode the recording to drop the commercials. Our son *never* sees commercials. I'm sure that has saved us tons of begging for toys and whatnot.
Read a book. Ok, not on the cheap Kindle but, you know what. Just shut up.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I wouldn't exactly call my feelings "moral outrage," but commercials are actually quite annoying. I personally never noticed it until I "cut the cord" and haven't had cable for quite a few years. Once you get used to TV all the time without commercials, you realize how truly disruptive and annoying they can be. Personally, when I stay with family or whatever now and they have broadcast TV on, I usually just leave the room and go do something else. TV is already mostly a waste of time, but with commercials it has now become unbearable for me.
Imagine if you were trying to read a book or look at art in a museum or something, and every 5 minutes some annoying person would come around and shout at you or do something random and stupid to distract you... That would be really ridiculous, but most people accept it when watching TV. Once you live without those distractions for a while though, you realize how weird it is.
but the pause button is an active disengagement... you may pause in the middle of somebody saying something, for example, even without meaning to. Commercial breaks are, at least, usually actually *between* scenes... and give you the opportunity to disengage from the TV without having to concentrate over when to hit that pause button.
Huh, really? Commercials "between scenes"? I guess you've never watched any mystery series or drama or... Well pretty much anything that might ever have suspense built in. Or the news -- " Stay with us... Up next, all those parts of the news you actually want to hear about, but which we delay until later to force you to watch commercials..."
I mean, seriously do you have a clue how programming is often explicitly designed to end on a disruptive point before a commercial to ensure you're in suspense and won't change a channel?? Or are you just trolling?
While watching FX at my friend's place the other day, we put a stop watch on the shows.
8:30 of show, then 4:30 of commercials, repeat.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Or alternatively clicking on "download torrent" :)
I don't think I have watched 6 days of of TV in the past 2-3 years combined.
... so that works out to a grand total of as many as 39 hours of commercial watching in an entire year. That's kinda falling pretty short of their estimate of 6 days. That's not even 2.
You're watching 0.86 hours per day, on average (6 1-hour shows over 7 days) rather than the population average of 1.67. Basically, half the amount of TV watching per week.
Then you're only watching 26 weeks per year, so again, half of the population average.
Thus, overall you're watching about 1/4 as much as the average person. 6.6 days / 4 = 1.65 * 24 = 39.6 hours. Tada! The magic of math.
Satan isn't so bad ... compared with cable TV.
I'd like to add to this that not just the concept of commercials becomes foreign to you, but even more so the actual content of them.
Once you're not used to commercials anymore, their absurdity becomes very readily apparent: Three people in big plastic balls rolling into a pool and subsequently drinking ice tea(tm). What the actual fuck?
We all understand that the main thing about commercials is standing out and getting brand recognition, but that changes nothing about how weird it is to behold them.
Not watching TV at all saves you more than 6 days a month. Close the TV and go outside! Have fun!
Here is how they figured that out: "First, it took Netflix's recent 75 million subscriber mark. Then, it combined that with a quote from CEO Reed Hastings that said subscribers stream 125 million hours every day.
There is not a 1:1 relationship between subscribers and viewers; husband, wife, 1.25 kids, yada. I suspect--wild ass guess--it is more on the order of ~1:3. So the hours saved per account doesn't change but hours per viewer goes down by ~third. I'm a little surprised it is so few streamed hours per subscriber.
For me it's the insults. Some try to tell me I'm inadequate. Some try to tell me I'm an idiot. Some just insult my intelligence by assuming I'll enjoy their nonsense. And they have the audacity to crank up my volume control, another insult. The usually have some little insults written at the bottom of the screen too, stuff like "not actual gameplay" or "terms and conditions apply". They are trying to sell me stuff, and they lie to my face hoping I won't notice?
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
My cable bill is $240 a month. I also have Netflix. Programming on cable is also in sharp decline. If cable wishes to survive they need drastic price drops as well as more investment in high-quality programs. Even the big hits like Game Of Thrones seem to have suffered budget cuts and offer too few episodes per year to stay alive. Meanwhile, Deadwood as well as Boardwalk Empire, could have made wonderful long running series. When cable gets a winner they need to make more of it instead of sending it to the boneyard.
I don't mind ad breaks in TV shows too much. It's when I watch a movie on TV that ad breaks make me mental. ESPECIALLY movies like Princess Bride, Star Wars, Breakfast Club, etc. where I know them by heart. The ads often ruin the flow.
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
When I was a kid I was diagnosed with ADHD. This wasn't some huge thing, it seemed like every other kid in my generation had it. For me, the medication works so it's minor inconvenience at best. But I've noticed that in the past few years as I've switched from cable TV to Netflix and Amazon Prime that my ability to concentrate has improved an astounding amount. It's almost like my brain isn't being conditioned to rip my attention away from what it is I'm focusing on and violently change contexts every 30 seconds anymore...
True.... but the pause button is an active disengagement...
Oh noes, a passive disengagement from my active disengagement
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I will be watching some tv program on NF, one that was designed/edited to be shown with commercials.
Perhaps something from the History Channel.
You can tell when the program is going to cut to a commercial, the music queues it up...
But then...
No commercial!
I love it!
What is interesting is sometimes I get an almost anticipatory anxiety, when I can tell it would normally go to a commercial.
But then when the ad doesn't show and the program just keeps on going, its almost blissful.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
It's also the reason why I put such a high value on the BBC (yes, I'm in the UK) and why I really don't mind paying the license fee.
The BBC kicks ass.
I listen to it at night sometimes driving home.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
It is even worse with radio: in the rare instance when I'm listening to broadcast radio the ads seem so jarring since I've become accustomed to internet radio where I can skip actual content at a whim, let alone noise.
I mute the system the moment a commercial begins. I check my email real quick on my phone (just a matter of seconds), maybe get a snack, turn my head to talk to my SO, etc.
Commercials don't bother me at all. Because I simply don't pay any attention to the content they present.
Hulu has a nice feature, a little timer icon at the top left. You can tell exactly how much time remains in the commercial. I use that to get the mute button off at just the right time, and no sooner. :) But if it goes away, it's no big deal. I still won't be listening, or otherwise paying any significant attention.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
The audio of commercials is the worst part for me.
I HAVE TO mute commercials.
It would be interesting for someone to do a study, using some kind of brain wave, ecg, eeg, whatever to monitor people.
They would be watching something they enjoy, and then the commercials come on.
How do they feel?
How is their brain affected?
Heart rate, blood pressure, anxiety levels, etc
IMHO you could definitely see the negative affects of advertising.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
Once you get used to TV all the time without commercials, you realize how truly disruptive and annoying they can be.
Netflix has also made me more aware of how some shows are structured for commercial breaks, when they fade to black and then come up at the same scene, or worse, repeat or even slightly change bits of what you just saw.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
When cable was first coming in, late seventies and early eighties... and I am not making this up, I saw the ads... a huge part of their advertising emphasis was "buy cable, and you'll never have to watch commercials again".
And that was back when there *might* have been 10 min of commercials per hour.....
mark "they lie, like a rug"
If you use an Android set top box, you spend those 6 days searching for content they don't have, trying to figure out how to make the interface work with a remote, shopping for a new remote after you throw yours against a wall, and researching Netflix alternatives.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
The cable companies are desperately clinging to content monopolies (ex. ESPN, etc.) to survive. I rarely watch anything live on TV anymore, other than the local news. Even sports, which I at one time swore had to be watched live, is better on the DVR. I watched the Superbowl that way last year. Zipped over all the commercials and that ridiculous time waster of a half time show. Must have cut a good hour out of it.
When I watch Netflix the thing I notice about having no commercials is not only less time to watch the show but the flow does not get interrupted.
It's not only the commercials. The amount of money the cable companies charge is an absolute ripoff. You are paying for 200 channels, of which you might actually watch 10 or less. The cable companies have fought tooth and nail against a la carte programming. If they ever do agree to it you can be certain that it will cost as much or more than the 200 channel package.
8640 minutes of /non stop/ commercials.
Not exactly "nobody", but I imagine that the majority of TV watchers aren't willing to pay $200-$300 for a TiVo device and $600 more for a subscription to the required service. Or to which competing "digital recording device" do you refer?
I threw away my mod points to relate this to you, i hate commercials that much.
When you say you don't even barely notice commercials then you have fully accepted them and let them program you completely. good job. If you noticed them at least you could make some conscious judgement about them but instead you don't even notice that the three food commercials in a row are now making you hungry, that you choice of drink is the one you've subconsciously seen more than the others.. oh wait you feel like a change? a change to the other drink you've been marketed.
The whole purpose of commercials is to make you buy something you don't want or need. if it was something you needed you would search it out yourself, or if it had merits of it's own you would know about it from the people you interact with (aka word of mouth). It's basically lying to make money and it's so sophisticated nowadays that you barely notice it while it's completely programming you.
try this one for size..honestly answer to see my point.
name 3 drink brands. name 3 types of dish soap. name 3 brands of gasoline. name 3 brands of dog food/cat food. name 3 brands of toothpaste/razor/car/tv/anything!!!!!
you are being programmed everyday, and at this point you can't even blame the ad companies because you're doing it to yourself.
So the amazing thing here is imo this: Cable tv, which is not free, but costs money, gives You 25% commercials????? So.. 25% of your free time, you're watching stuff you don't want? How the hell did they ever sell that? And why do people accept it?
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you haven't had kids :)
Okay, seriously.... I've watched stuff on streaming services many times. One of my grown-up sons has a Netflix subscription and the year before last, he had moved back in with us for a few months due to some unexpected circumstances at his own home. During that time, I did actually watch quite a few shows on Netflix, especially on the weekends, and enjoyed rewatching some of the older tv shows that I had a fond recollection for. However, the experience overall seemed no different to me than watching the same TV series on a DVD, however, which is similarly without commercials, and for myself it did not alter the experience of watching regular TV shows with commercials in any way.
I simply don't notice commercials enough to be bothered by them... I suppose I might if they lasted much longer than they currently do, but the duration seems to be short enough that it's not an issue, and generally speaking, television is not so important or urgent a priority to me that I would otherwise feel I can't afford to sit around waiting for a commercial to end.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I haven't watched a movie on tv for years.... If I want to watch a movie, I will plug in a DVD, or buy/rent a digital copy.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Not meaning to sound like I'm trolling. I'm being entirely serious here when I say that I just don't take it as some sort of personal attack upon myself when a show that I might happen to be really getting into is suddenly interrupted by a TV commercial. It's just TV. It's just not THAT important to be something to get upset about.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Even worse is when something is available online for free with commercials & they get the timing off...then you see or hear a second or so of whatever was about to happen, then have to wait for the ads to end to see the rest. Sometimes it is hard to remember half a word from 10 minutes ago (especially if you go do something else on the commercial break). (10 minutes because 3 minutes worth of ads expanded by the ads being forced to a higher bitrate than my link can support, even though the show plays just fine...you would think they would realize that nobody is going to even try watch an ad that stutters that badly.)
You don't have to buy the most expensive/latest TiVo to get the benefits of their new skip capability.
But you do need to buy TiVo service, and I seem to remember a sub costing $600 even on a device that isn't "the most expensive/latest".
Also, you can get the service as a subscription model.
If you're willing to pay $150 per year (source) for the use of a DVR, you might as well get the cable company's DVR, especially if you can bundle the federally mandated basic service (just locals, C-SPAN, and public access) with your existing Internet access from the same cable company. It's fewer boxes by your TV, and possibly more likely to support oddball cases such as SDV than putting a CableCARD access card in a TiVo DVR.
Last, they have sales on a regular basis
Sales on only the hardware or also on the sub?
It's very strange that people still opt to pay for so much advertising. I am always amazed when I find a TV connected to cable and flip through the channels and channels of ads. Why isn't cable TV free already?