Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix • Hacker News Board

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#81

Post by JustSomeNobody » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 3:54 PM UTC

eitally wrote: post #33

jimmar wrote: post #17

I can count on one hand the number of times my children have sat down and watched network TV. They are 4 and 7 years old. With ~15 minutes of commercials per hour, I've probably saved them from watching thousands of commercials, which I think is a good thing.

Mine only ever see it in hotel rooms on vacation. The first time they experienced it, my son got very upset because we could pause it when he had to use the bathroom. The commercials irritated my wife & I so much we just turned it off entirely.

My wife and I watch Netflix when we do watch anything (we have twin two year olds, so this is a rare luxury). For some reason or other we turned on 'regular' tv the other day and there was an NFL game on. We could not believe how many commercials there were! Also, just how insultingly unintelligent they were. I mean, who actually would want to watch these commercials!?

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#82

Post by qjighap » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 3:55 PM UTC

So if they are showing less commercials how are they planning to lengthen programming to fill the 30/60 minute time slots? I understand new content can be altered, but re-editing old content would be most difficult.

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#83

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 3:58 PM UTC

cJ0th wrote: post #51

I wonder whether netflix et al will introduce ads once cable is dead and the VoD market is saturated. After all, they too want to increase their profit at any point in time.

[deleted]

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#84

Post by unoti » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 3:59 PM UTC

Netflix has sponsored all this cutting edge research on recommendation engines, and it can predict very well how much I'm going to enjoy something. Why in the world won't it just show me a list of 4 and 5 star things? Are they afraid I'll just watch those things over the course of a month then stop subscribing?

The clunkiness of their UI isn't incompetence, it's by choice, right? Or am I missing some important part of their UI that's hiding in plain sight somewhere?

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#85

Post by JustSomeNobody » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 4:00 PM UTC

lentil_soup wrote: post #5

“Consumers are being trained there are places they can go to avoid ads.” With that kind of rhetoric no wonder they're still in denial.

Ugh, yeah. Tell us how you really feel about consumers Time Warner.

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#86

Post by jff » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 4:02 PM UTC

phkahler wrote: post #74

benten10 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 points. I won't speak for myself, but from what I've gathered from friends: 1. A lot of people seem to like video ads. Movie ads specially tell you 'whats hot', and general ads put you 'in the loop' so to speak. I've tried to install ABV for a couple of people who won't let me because they actually like ads (as in youtube, not the shiny bright popups). This may be true for more people than HN crowd would assume. 2.…

>> Perhaps if cable were referred to as 'a curated platform of best video content, being streaming 24/7', the conception would change? But the high quality content (when there is any) on cable ends up on extra channels that require you to pay more. IMHO TV was better OTA than on cable. You had a small number of local channels and they had to compete for eyeballs. Content was much better. Cable provides a way to shove…

> IMHO TV was better OTA than on cable. You had a small number of local channels and they had to compete for eyeballs.

OTA TV still exists and it's not bad. $15 for an antenna and I'm getting about 40 channels in Albuquerque.

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#87

Post by pinkrooftop » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 4:04 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #27

sageabilly wrote: post #6

Even among my less technologically advanced friends and family there's maybe only a handful of people who still watch shows regularly on cable television. My in-laws watch TV shows but they record them and skip over the ads. Pretty much the only thing that I know of that anyone watches on cable and still sits through ads is live sports. Watching cable networks flail around and completely fail to understand that their…

But don't the cable companies own Hulu? So they have realised the change is coming, and have already adapted.

yep Comcast, Fox, and Disney own Hulu

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#88

Post by S_A_P » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 4:11 PM UTC

Now if the DVD vendors(hopefully a dying market) could only get the picture that when I rent a movie for my kid to play in the car, I dont want to have to skip 30 minutes of ads to start what I rented...

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#89

Post by izzydata » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 4:11 PM UTC

Why anyone younger than 50 still pays for cable is a mystery to me. Once the fiber internet infrastructure across the US becomes the norm it makes more sense for all shows and services to be provided over the net even if they keep a similar nonstop 24/7 airing format. You just wouldn't be downloading while it is turned off.

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#90

Post by shaftoe » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 4:16 PM UTC

jimmar wrote: post #17

I can count on one hand the number of times my children have sat down and watched network TV. They are 4 and 7 years old. With ~15 minutes of commercials per hour, I've probably saved them from watching thousands of commercials, which I think is a good thing.

Mine don't understand why live TV cannot be paused or fast forwarded.

The first time they encountered a commercial, they became very frustrated as to why their show was no longer playing and they couldn't do anything about it.