Local Commercials on National Channels?

[SRW1000]

Sorry if this has been answered before, but a rudimentary search didn't pull up anything.

While watching one of the national channels, there was a commercial for recall election going on in our state. I thought it would be odd for one of the parties to be spending money to hit viewers across the nation for a state election, so I hit the back button. Strangely enough, the commercial wasn't there - instead it was a Nutrasystem ad.

Is Dish using their DVRs to store locally-targeted ads and then replay them from the hard drive during what would be a locally-designated break? I'm not sure how else they would be doing this. It may have happened before, but since this recall is such a specific item, I may just not have noticed it. I own a 722k.

Not that any of bothers me, I'm just curious. It would be an interesting use of technology that I wasn't aware of.

Scott

 

[GaryPen]

The national networks always set a small amount of airtime aside for the local affiliates (the ones broadcasting over the air in your city) to sell local advertising locally, and an even smaller amount of time for the carriers (Comcast, Dish, etc) to sell ad airtime.

Even though it's a national network, it takes a few steps to get that programming to your living room. And, each of those steps gets a piece of the action.

 

[videonex]

True that the national nets have open positions for the providers, cable sat etc, to insert their own ads or promos, for the sat providers, like Dish or DirecTV to sell and insert ads on a local level, or regionally specific level although I would think technically possible would be fiscally not prudent, or at least technically unfeasible because it would take extra bandwidth which they are crying they don't have. The OP is indicating a local or regional ad ran on a national network on Dish. I've yet to see that sort of thing happen. Closest would be on an RSN which is part national programming but done locally and would be easy to insert local ads. Cable of course does it all the time. Easy for them, since local or regional head ends insert the local stuff. Satellite would have to use separate spot beams for the local ads and then re map your receiver to switch to the ad transponder when needed and then switch you back to the regular feed when done. It would probably be sloppy at best in clean transitions, and then the extra bandwidth comes into play. He does indicate that his DVR recorded a national ad in that same position. Maybe they are doing the local spot beam thing but it only maps the receiver to show the local ad but not interrupt the feed to the recording?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Sorry if this has been answered before, but a rudimentary search didn't pull up anything.

While watching one of the national channels, there was a commercial for recall election going on in our state. I thought it would be odd for one of the parties to be spending money to hit viewers across the nation for a state election, so I hit the back button. Strangely enough, the commercial wasn't there - instead it was a Nutrasystem ad.

Is Dish using their DVRs to store locally-targeted ads and then replay them from the hard drive during what would be a locally-designated break? I'm not sure how else they would be doing this. It may have happened before, but since this recall is such a specific item, I may just not have noticed it. I own a 722k.

Not that any of bothers me, I'm just curious. It would be an interesting use of technology that I wasn't aware of.

Scott

Yes they are starting to screw around with local ad insertion.

 

[Tampa8]

NESN has recently had very local advertising. It must be only to certain zip codes because the businesses are way too small to be advertising to Boston, or NH, or RI......

 

[Bobby]

I've seen some very local commercials on NESN here in Rohnert Park, CA. They seemed to be geared to the area of the home team who's game was being televised.....

 

[GaryPen]

The OP is indicating a local or regional ad ran on a national network on Dish. I've yet to see that sort of thing happen.

I know what he was saying/asking, and my response was correct.

If you haven't seen local ads on national broadcasts, you either didn't notice or didn't realize you were seeing a local ad. They happen all the time for reasons I stated in my original reply to the OP.

 

[videonex]

I know what he was saying/asking, and my response was correct.

If you haven't seen local ads on national broadcasts, you either didn't notice or didn't realize you were seeing a local ad. They happen all the time for reasons I stated in my original reply to the OP.

I see the constant barrage of Dish promos and obviously Dish inserted national ads in the local avails all the time. Being a relatively recent refugee from cable, I also saw the local ads inserted by the cable company all the time. Like I said before, I haven't seen local ads in those slots on Dish and always believed it technically more difficult than it was worth for Dish or DirecTv to take the needed steps to do truly local insertion. Not impossible, just not cost or bandwidth effective. Maybe they are seeing it differently now and are doing some.

 

[dan188]

Yes they are starting to screw around with local ad insertion.

When did this start scott?? I guess its not in all markets yet

 

[GaryPen]

I see the constant barrage of Dish promos and obviously Dish inserted national ads in the local avails all the time. Being a relatively recent refugee from cable, I also saw the local ads inserted by the cable company all the time. Like I said before, I haven't seen local ads in those slots on Dish and always believed it technically more difficult than it was worth for Dish or DirecTv to take the needed steps to do truly local insertion. Not impossible, just not cost or bandwidth effective. Maybe they are seeing it differently now and are doing some.

Dish and DirecTV don't do the insertion of the local ads. The local affiliates do.

 

[GaryPen]

Yes they are starting to screw around with local ad insertion.

I assume by "screw around", you mean they are looking into ways to accomplish this. Or, are they actually just inserting them into LIL feeds?

 

[harshness]

DISH and DIRECTV issued a joint press release many months ago talking about entering into the local ad insertion business. Now you know what it meant.

I wouldn't assume that the ad was stored on your DVR (although it may be). If it is, it probably is in the DISH reserved portion of the DVR and it is likely delivered via satellite.

 

[Tampa8]

Local commercials replacing national ones at times on the national cable channels is not a bad thing. For instance, the local channels can advertise their newscasts. Especially now that the Hopper skips their own commercials......
Dish giveth, and Dish taketh.....

 

[joelwnelson]

DirecTV's implementation actually does involved downloading ads to the DVR and then inserting them at various times. They're doing this in the top 25 markets at least.

Satellite TV Providers to Start Offering Local Ads | DISH Network Satellite TV Deals

Dish's implementation may be similar.

 

[Juan]

True that the national nets have open positions for the providers, cable sat etc, to insert their own ads or promos, for the sat providers, like Dish or DirecTV to sell and insert ads on a local level, or regionally specific level although I would think technically possible would be fiscally not prudent, or at least technically unfeasible because it would take extra bandwidth which they are crying they don't have. The OP is indicating a local or regional ad ran on a national network on Dish. I've yet to see that sort of thing happen. Closest would be on an RSN which is part national programming but done locally and would be easy to insert local ads. Cable of course does it all the time. Easy for them, since local or regional head ends insert the local stuff. Satellite would have to use separate spot beams for the local ads and then re map your receiver to switch to the ad transponder when needed and then switch you back to the regular feed when done. It would probably be sloppy at best in clean transitions, and then the extra bandwidth comes into play. He does indicate that his DVR recorded a national ad in that same position. Maybe they are doing the local spot beam thing but it only maps the receiver to show the local ad but not interrupt the feed to the recording?

or just reserve harddrive space on your DVR and use new technology to play them from there

 

[dare2be]

While watching one of the national channels, there was a commercial for recall election going on in our state. I thought it would be odd for one of the parties to be spending money to hit viewers across the nation for a state election, so I hit the back button. Strangely enough, the commercial wasn't there - instead it was a Nutrasystem ad.

Nothing in this post surprises me, except the part about rewinding and not finding the commercial stored in the buffer. If it was shown, it would still be in the buffer, right?

 

[SRW1000]

Yes they are starting to screw around with local ad insertion.

Scott,

Do to have any information on how they're doing this?

Again, I don't care that they're doing it, I'm just curious about how they're doing it.

Scott

 

[SRW1000]

FWIW, I don't subscribe to locals through Dish.

 

[SRW1000]

Nothing in this post surprises me, except the part about rewinding and not finding the commercial stored in the buffer. If it was shown, it would still be in the buffer, right?

That's what I would have expected, but there was nothing there. That's why I had guessed it may have been stored to the hard drive and then inserted into the stream later.

 

[JM42]

Nothing in this post surprises me, except the part about rewinding and not finding the commercial stored in the buffer. If it was shown, it would still be in the buffer, right?

Dish sells a local ad for an Atlanta area local election and stores it on the DVR.

You have a CONUS channel. Dish sends the same CONUS signal to nationwide with markers in the data stream where to insert local ads. DVR sees the markers and inserts the campaign ad in Atlanta, the rest of the nation sees an ad for the Schticky. If you rewind the program, the markers are ignored and you see the Schticky ad too.

They potentially can get focused down to the neighborhood, or even specific viewers based on some profile.