TV Nets Cluttered Shows With Ads To Make Up For Lost Viewers In Q4

[osu1991]

If you thought there were more commercials lately, you were right. More reason to give up pay tv.

http://deadline.com/2015/01/tv-networks-commercial-advertising-clutter-1201361369/

Bernstein Research’s Todd Juenger calls it “desperate,” and MoffettNathanson Research’s Michael Nathanson calls it “dangerous.” But both analysts, using data from TiVo, say this morning that the trend is unmistakable: Major TV network owners led by Viacom, A+E, and Discovery significantly increased the amount of prime time commercial minutes in their shows in Q4, helping to compensate for a decline in viewing.

 

[Tampa8]

Time for the Auto Hop to include cable. Might be able to watch two 1/2 hour shows in 1/2 hour.

 

[dare2be]

When I saw USA Network insert an ad for DIG in the middle of SVU, disrupting the actual dialog of the show, I knew it was just going to continue to go downhill.

 

[Tampa8]

That isn't new for USA during rerun shows. They cut off the dialog and cut directly to commercial, I'm guessing to fit in more commercial time.

 

[dare2be]

That isn't new for USA during rerun shows. They cut off the dialog and cut directly to commercial, I'm guessing to fit in more commercial time.

No, I mean, the video cut out in the middle of the show dialog making it look like a signal problem, then 2 seconds of a DIG promo, then back to the show. It was pathetic.

 

[TNGTony]

There are 5 and 6 minute commercial breaks during some shows on some of these cable nets. I don't know what they are thinking! I actually stopped recording some shows because, even with commercial skipping, there's too many commercial breaks. Sons of Liberty was nearly unwatchable on History. What's funny is when you watch it on the Roku channel, there's only a 1 minute commercial break each time, not 3, 4 and 5 minute breaks! Why don't they do that on their broadcast?

 

[osu1991]

Yep I noticed that too

 

[GaryPen]

Network Exec 1: "Everybody is skipping the commercials."
Exec 2: "Nobody is watching them."
Exec 3: "What can we do?"
Exec 4: "Let's add more of them!"
All: "BRILLIANT!!!!"

 

[MikeD-C05]

Soon there will be just 40 minutes of commercials with only 20 minutes of actual show thrown in between the commercials.

 

[Tampa8]

I am in no way defending them, sometimes though they actually skip a commercial time to make that portion of the program more contiguous. They then add more at another point. Shows like Suits do that. This is going to be interesting if they insist on even more commercials.

 

[old corps]

There are 5 and 6 minute commercial breaks during some shows on some of these cable nets. I don't know what they are thinking! I actually stopped recording some shows because, even with commercial skipping, there's too many commercial breaks. Sons of Liberty was nearly unwatchable on History. What's funny is when you watch it on the Roku channel, there's only a 1 minute commercial break each time, not 3, 4 and 5 minute breaks! Why don't they do that on their broadcast?

Yep, that and the pq is actually better via the Roku! 1080i vs 1080p.

Ed

 

[Yespage]

They raise the channel cost rates, then add more commercials.

 

[dare2be]

They raise the channel cost rates, then add more commercials.

...and infomercials...and split a channel into 2 channels so they can double their carriage fee revenue, double the commercials and infomercials.

 

[Rolling Joe]

...and infomercials...and split a channel into 2 channels so they can double their carriage fee revenue, double the commercials and infomercials.

Bingo! And the MVPD's like Dish fall for it every time. We need fewer of these bandwidth hog "services" like H2. The programmers assume - with good reason - that they will get the carriage percentage they need to run these marathon rerun, commercial laden channels. They are nothing more than a cash cow; money from us every month, laundered through the MVPD's, to them. What a scam.

 

[ChadT41]

Bingo! And the MVPD's like Dish fall for it every time. We need fewer of these bandwidth hog "services" like H2. The programmers assume - with good reason - that they will get the carriage percentage they need to run these marathon rerun, commercial laden channels. They are nothing more than a cash cow; money from us every month, laundered through the MVPD's, to them. What a scam.

Wish it were that easy. You will always have that group of customers complaining about how Dish diesnt carry it, and that looks bad. I agree, it should be quality over quantity, but look at it from the business and PR perspective. Hell, on the main dish forum, channels with virtually no worthy ratings are driving bad attention to Dish, just today, such as RetroTV. It's hard to decide where to draw that line, although I'm sure if there was a collusion between all the MVPD's against stations like H2, we'd see some changes. Something in the contracts like VOOM had. "You must put X amount of new shows on each quarter", could also make the difference. Or a blackout clause that if the ratings didn't surpass a certain number for so many weeks, it also could be dropped with no break in the contract.

 

[Yespage]

...and infomercials...and split a channel into 2 channels so they can double their carriage fee revenue, double the commercials and infomercials.

Some channels have just become absurd, making two hour movies into 3.5 hour movies. Who'd watch it? It was hard enough to watch commercials in movies before they became saturated with them.

 

[Rolling Joe]

It's hard to decide where to draw that line, although I'm sure if there was a collusion between all the MVPD's against stations like H2, we'd see some changes. Something in the contracts like VOOM had. "You must put X amount of new shows on each quarter", could also make the difference. Or a blackout clause that if the ratings didn't surpass a certain number for so many weeks, it also could be dropped with no break in the contract.

Also an MVPD with a corporate philosophy that says "no channel with a '2' in the name (or anything else we think is a scam to use us to launder money from our subscribers to you.) will be added until, in our opinion, the programmer proves the channel has programming that justifies us charging our subscribers more for it".

And a contact, once signed, would have absolute limits on commercial time and if exceeded, would reduce the per subscriber monthly fee paid by the MVPD.

No collusion needed. Just cajones. Even more than Charlie.

Or, they could continue doing what they're doing now and eventually drive themselves out of business.

 

[dangue]

Also an MVPD with a corporate philosophy that says "no channel with a '2' in the name (or anything else we think is a scam to use us to launder money from our subscribers to you.) will be added until, in our opinion, the programmer proves the channel has programming that justifies us charging our subscribers more for it".

And a contact, once signed, would have absolute limits on commercial time and if exceeded, would reduce the per subscriber monthly fee paid by the MVPD.

No collusion needed. Just cajones. Even more than Charlie.

Or, they could continue doing what they're doing now and eventually drive themselves out of business.

I don't disagree with your sentiment, but please don't call it money laundering, it's not.

 

[Rolling Joe]

I don't disagree with your sentiment, but please don't call it money laundering, it's not.

I agree. It's not. But it sure seems like it though.

 

[DishSubLA]

And what's worse is the growing trend to streaming content makes it impossible (prohibited) to even SKIP those massive commercial blocks. Ture right now fewer commercials on streamig, but we all know that ads will INCREASE on streaming as time passes. I feel like we are doomed. We could see two tiers of streaming in the future: lower monthly subscription, but have to sit through ads; higher monthly subscription with either no commercials are far fewer that are still prohibited to skip.