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Kids in ‘Netflix Only’ Homes Saved from 230 Hours of Commercials a Year

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Re: Kids in ‘Netflix Only’ Homes Saved from 230 Hours of Commercials a Year

#131

Post by nostrademons »

jjeaff wrote: post #117
nostrademons wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect regular programming isn't getting dumber, the alternatives are just getting smarter. When I look at the crap I watched as a kid in the 80s (which included a good amount of 70s reruns), basically all broadcast TV today is far superior. But the competition for broadcast TV isn't "no competition" now, it's the Internet, and computer games, and Netflix. The entertainment industry has been blown wide open by the…

One thing that is certain is that there are more commercials now. If you watch an episode of The Big Bang Theory sans commercials, you will notice that it is only 17 minutes long! And that includes the 60 second intro. So 13 minutes of commercials for 16 minutes of actual content. No chance I'll be going back to regular TV.

Is that all that different from what it was before? My recollection of 80s sitcoms & children's programs is that they had 3 commercials of 3 minutes apiece, plus a 3 minute break between programs. That's 12 minutes.

Actually, I can test this...I've got some old My Little Pony episodes lying around on a hard disk. They're 9 minutes apiece. IIRC they ran 2 to a timeslot, so that's 18 minutes of show per 30 minute timeslot, and 12 minutes of commercials.

Re: Kids in ‘Netflix Only’ Homes Saved from 230 Hours of Commercials a Year

#132

Post by scarface74 »

wu_tang_chris wrote: post #118
macintux wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been some astonishingly good television programs to come out of broadcast television. West Wing, MASH... Wait, I'm sure there have been more. Right? Yeah, never mind.

Frasier

Didn't Frasier have a laugh track? I can't watch anything with a laugh track.

Re: Kids in ‘Netflix Only’ Homes Saved from 230 Hours of Commercials a Year

#133

Post by l33tbro »

aviv wrote: post #127
frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does that readjustment period look like to you? Pure curiosity.

It's like watching someone come down from a high. Technically they are doing just that. They get pretty intense, very demanding, can't handle the calmness and relatively (to the stupid show they just watched) quiet environment. And they know it too. Both my kids express that finishing watching shows on the iPad doesn't make them feel good. They're very aware of it. Now that it's nice out they would rather skip it alt…

How do they go with reading? Seems like a balance between stimulation and calm.

Re: Kids in ‘Netflix Only’ Homes Saved from 230 Hours of Commercials a Year

#134

Post by itronitron »

detaro wrote: post #109
ahelwer wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This unfortunately makes Zachtronics games a non-starter for me. Software development and Zachtronics games is a fast track to burnout. Their last two involve literal programming.

For some reason, Opus Magnum didn't cause the "I do this all day already" reaction yet for me, despite clearly being a programming game. Maybe it's the theme and presentation of it? Or maybe it's just the relaxation of the bugs at least being obvious.

I think these games seem like fun (despite being similar to _work_) as they are free of consequences... the player can mess up and walk away without it impacting their daily life, that likely takes a lot of stress away from the activity.

Re: Kids in ‘Netflix Only’ Homes Saved from 230 Hours of Commercials a Year

#135

Post by crispinb »

aviv wrote: post #69

Every minute a kid watches a stupid Netflix kids show is a wasted minute they can be stimulating their brain positively instead of numbing it with manufactured industrialized content. Having said that my kids do get a couple hours on the weekend and it's actually fascinating to see what happens when they put the iPad away. It's almost like they need a half hour or so to re-adjust to real life after all the stupid con…

More time away from screens and engaging with reality, is surely a good thing. But while they are focused on screens (hardly avoidable quite yet) the less corporate propaganda that gets installed onto developing brains the better.

Re: Kids in ‘Netflix Only’ Homes Saved from 230 Hours of Commercials a Year

#136

Post by scarface74 »

nuclearchicken wrote: post #67
Spooky23 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the “Frosty the Snowman” special on live TV ran almost 90 minutes... the commercials were agonizing. Also, kids are consuming a lot of highly effective YouTube ads.

What ads? I block everything for my family. While I do have cable for certain things, my wife and I DVR everything and FF through the ads. I find advertising distasteful and I don't suffer through it. I will likely go straight Internet in 2018. I can get straight unlimited 1GB connection Internet for $99 month. I pay another $45 for the cable. It's difficult to get BBC and BBC America without cable or satellite, and…

BBC America is part of Sling's core package - $20 a month. It's also on Direct TV Now and Playststion Vue.

Re: Kids in ‘Netflix Only’ Homes Saved from 230 Hours of Commercials a Year

#137

Post by eat_veggies »

bllguo wrote: post #81
feverishaaron wrote: post #22

Naw, kids from Netflix homes are just watching long-form commercials. Dino Trucks, Nexo Knights and Ninjago all dominate my boys' Christmas wish lists this year.

at least Lego is a reasonably healthy toy, right?

The kits with multicolored bricks and no instructions are healthy. Everything else LEGO puts out are just action figures.

Source: grew up with both Bionicles and the multicolored bricks. Bionicles sat put together on a shelf while I reconfigured the bricks every day.

Re: Kids in ‘Netflix Only’ Homes Saved from 230 Hours of Commercials a Year

#138

Post by niftich »

pesfandiar wrote: post #126
DubiousPusher wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think TV remains popular with certain people largely out of ease of use. You can just turn it on and you don't have to make a decision about what to watch. It's always there. Also, changing would require learning something new. People genuinely find learning to have a level of discomfort so they avoid it. https://arstechnica.com/science/2013/03/learning-hurts-your-...

I wonder why Netflix doesn't add a "random content" button. That's one of the appeals of TV versus Netflix that could be replicated very easily. Something more akin to changing channels like "random cartoon" or "random comedy" would remove one last obstacle in the way of converting cable subscribers.

The 'random' button would interfere with their aggregate viewership tracking and recommendation algorithms. When the viewer appears to select a particular show to watch, you can have reasonable faith in the viewership numbers.

If the platform were to offer a random choice, the fact that the resulting view was not organic would need to be tracked separately. Conversely, you'd want a better way of figuring out whether the viewer was satisfied with the content after all. These problems require nontrivial effort.

Right now, things are much easier. The viewer always makes a choice, ostensibly a conscious choice, and all views factor into aggregate numbers that correlate with show popularity.

Re: Kids in ‘Netflix Only’ Homes Saved from 230 Hours of Commercials a Year

#139

Post by scott_karana »

pesfandiar wrote: post #126
DubiousPusher wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think TV remains popular with certain people largely out of ease of use. You can just turn it on and you don't have to make a decision about what to watch. It's always there. Also, changing would require learning something new. People genuinely find learning to have a level of discomfort so they avoid it. https://arstechnica.com/science/2013/03/learning-hurts-your-...

I wonder why Netflix doesn't add a "random content" button. That's one of the appeals of TV versus Netflix that could be replicated very easily. Something more akin to changing channels like "random cartoon" or "random comedy" would remove one last obstacle in the way of converting cable subscribers.

They could even sell a "pseudo DVR" box, with themed channels, scheduled movies, in addition to all the usual streaming features.

Re: Kids in ‘Netflix Only’ Homes Saved from 230 Hours of Commercials a Year

#140

Post by detaro »

1_2__4 wrote: post #128
intopieces wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>where we sit there watching a box telling us what to buy This is no different from YouTube or Facebook. Except those services follow your personally and make shadow profiles of your preferences and sell them to other companies. Is that really better?

Yes, yes it is. I’m astounded your conflate broadcaster cable TV ads with the stuff we see on, say, YouTube. They seem very different to me

Probably depends on your usage pattern. When you see Youtube ads on a newly setup machine (pre ad-block install...) or something else which won't have a good tracking profile, it seems a lot like TV ads: soda, cat food, body lotion or deodorants or something of that nature, video games.
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