New "twist" on Dish skipping commercials

[Juan]

I know there is a big controversy over Dish's new auto hop feature. We all know that "comcast/nbc" has come out against it. Cable has VOD copies of major network programs and many cable network programs very soon after they are aired. NONE of these programs carry commercials!! Some have promos for network shows but all ads have deleted. How is this any different that what dish is doing? (please note Comcast VOD does not show cemmercials)

 

[Ronnie-]

How is this a new "twist"? This point has been brought up multiple times in several threads.

 

[Bobby]

It's new to Juan...

 

[renegade734]

I think it's a valid question: Auto-Hop automatically skips the commercials, content providers are up in arms. Content providers cut the commercials out, no big deal. What's the difference?

 

[navychop]

Six one way, half a dozen the other.

 

[meStevo]

Content providers almost certainly license the VOD content in some form or is included in their carriage agreements, which then generates revenue, I would think.

There's no twist here, it's a bit of a reach to compare VOD to something recorded live and watched later.

 

[dare2be]

I think there is a comparison. If I know that certain VOD content is going to be available to me commercial-free anytime I want to watch it starting the day after it airs live, why wouldn't I just wait and watch it then, instead of trudging through the commercials on the airdate?

Replace "VOD" with "PTAT", and you have the exact same scenario.

 

[meStevo]

I think there is a comparison. If I know that certain VOD content is going to be available to me commercial-free anytime I want to watch it starting the day after it airs live, why wouldn't I just wait and watch it then, instead of trudging through the commercials on the airdate?

Replace "VOD" with "PTAT", and you have the exact same scenario.

Big difference being PTAT is your DMA, ads and all, and VOD isn't always the full slate of programs.

It's not like they're commercials for geriatric porn or something, programing that I enjoy watching is not a big deal to either wait a little bit so I can fast forward, or simply 'trudge' through them rather than wait 24 hours or whatever because 10-15 minutes of commercials will just ruin my night.

 

[dare2be]

You're focusing too much on "trudge". My point was it's more convenient to have the content available to watch at any time/day, as opposed to being tied to a single evening when it is scheduled. In that sense, commercial-free VOD content is the same as PTAT Auto-Hopped content: available the next day at the viewers' convenience. I suspect that the broadcast network carriage agreements at renewal time will be re-negotiated with terms similar to how cable VOD agreements are now: only certain programs will be allowed to be Auto-Hopped based on carriage agreements.

 

[Hall]

Content providers almost certainly license the VOD content in some form or is included in their carriage agreements, which then generates revenue, I would think.

There's no twist here, it's a bit of a reach to compare VOD to something recorded live and watched later.

I agree with that. As part of the agreements between the cablecos and the networks, they are surely paying an "adder" fee for access to VOD. This is NOTHING like what Dish is doing with Auto-Hop.

 

[dan188]

When i would watch primetime ondemand from twc for nbc cbs and any of the big networks fast fowarding was disabled so you couldnt skip the ads that were there.

 

[ohioankev]

When i would watch primetime ondemand from twc for nbc cbs and any of the big networks fast fowarding was disabled so you couldnt skip the ads that were there.

Yes it's about the same on my local cable system.

 

[GaryPen]

VOD often has commercials that can't be skipped. They may be fewer and different than what was part of the original broadcast. But, there are commercials. Plus, and this is important, they can't be skipped.

So, I would say there is a big difference between Dish Auto-hop playback with no commercials and next-day streaming with embedded, unskippable commercials.

 

[dangue]

VOD often has commercials that can't be skipped. They may be fewer and different than what was part of the original broadcast. But, there are commercials. Plus, and this is important, they can't be skipped.

So, I would say there is a big difference between Dish Auto-hop playback with no commercials and next-day streaming with embedded, unskippable commercials.

Not from the point of view of the original advertisers who network executives seem to think will suffer so much that they will alter their spending.

The reality is that Autohop is not going to have a big impact on ad revenue as things currently stand. It's available only on the Hopper and only on time shifted programming. The percentage of Hoppers out of total viewing households is minuscule. And the vast majority of people that watch these shows time shifted likely already 30 second skip through commercial breaks (so they weren't seeing them anyway).

The real threat of Autohop is that if the networks allow it to flourish, that similar features will spread to other providers and other devices. That would force the industry to adapt and the industry likes how things are currently. So they'll do everything they can to kill this feature before it can catch on and spread.

I wonder if all the network outrage hasn't backfired a bit and simply made more consumers aware that Dish is offering this added convenience. Extra publicity of this is perfect for this, they reach more potential customers without having to pay advertising. And even the press that paint this as negative for the industry call it great for viewers. It would be interesting to see what Dish's sub numbers and Hopper installs have done since March 15th and especially if there has been any sort of uptick the past couple of weeks.

 

[GaryPen]

Not from the point of view of the original advertisers who network executives seem to think will suffer so much that they will alter their spending..

The original advertisers know they are only paying for that one airing, not subsequent on demand viewings. And, they are paying rates for that one airing based on published and accepted ratings for that network at that time.

So, yes, there is a big difference between DVR playback with Auto-hop and On-Demand viewing with embedded commercials that cannot be skipped.

 

[Hall]

It would be interesting to see what Dish's sub numbers and Hopper installs have done since March 15th and especially if there has been any sort of uptick the past couple of weeks.

Consumers don't react that quickly and I doubt that AutoHop would convince people to out of the blue switch from cable or DirecTV. If someone were contemplating switching and looking at pluses, this would simply be another checkbox to mark in favor of Dish.

 

[dangue]

The original advertisers know they are only paying for that one airing, not subsequent on demand viewings. And, they are paying rates for that one airing based on published and accepted ratings for that network at that time.

So, yes, there is a big difference between DVR playback with Auto-hop and On-Demand viewing with embedded commercials that cannot be skipped.

You're talking about how important it is that on demand commercials can't be skipped and how that makes Autohop different. Just pointing out that the broadcast advertisers don't get any benefit from that. In fact, having programming available in that fashion is likely to reduce the number of live broadcast viewers, so in a sense, they can be just as harmed.

And the ratings those broadcasters are basing their payments on are based principally on same day viewing. Same day +3 ratings are tracked, but they're nowhere near as desirable because of the tendency of DVR owners to skip commercials.

 

[GaryPen]

You're talking about how important it is that on demand commercials can't be skipped and how that makes Autohop different. Just pointing out that the broadcast advertisers don't get any benefit from that. In fact, having programming available in that fashion is likely to reduce the number of live broadcast viewers, so in a sense, they can be just as harmed.

They can just as easily pay for ads on streaming shows. It's up to them to weigh the value, efficacy, and ROI of each method of distribution.