Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

Back around 1981, advertisers would take a certain percentage of ad pages in each newspaper or magazine and consider it a reasonable deal. These days, they absolutely will not accept this unless they get a lot more space, obnoxious animations, force-play videos, and overlays that you have to click through, and often various registration walls, cross-site tracking, etc.

They have only themselves to blame for ad blocking. With ML, eventually this will become pervasive, even into the physical world. (My VR goggles will gray out billboards, etc.)

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#8

Post by elliekelly » Sun, Apr 26, 2020, 2:06 AM UTC

sjwright wrote: post #2

And the real question is: will history repeat itself with Netflix, et al? HBO demonstrates that it’s still an open question.

I’ve recently noticed some Hulu shows that let you know you’ll see ads even if you subscribe to ad-free Hulu.

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#9

Post by rjtobin » Sun, Apr 26, 2020, 2:06 AM UTC

sjwright wrote: post #2

And the real question is: will history repeat itself with Netflix, et al? HBO demonstrates that it’s still an open question.

I think there’s a chance it will be different: at least now there is the potential to offer customers an ad-free package for an extra cost. Some services like Hulu already do this (offering cheaper plan with ads and a slightly pricier plan with no ads). I think with cable this would have been difficult or impossible to achieve.

One nice thing about this is it makes plain how much the networks make from showing ads to your household. I happily pay a little extra to “outbid” the ad networks.

Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

#10

Post by judge2020 » Sun, Apr 26, 2020, 2:07 AM UTC

downerending wrote: post #7

It's like a creeping cancer that cannot be stopped. Back around 1981, advertisers would take a certain percentage of ad pages in each newspaper or magazine and consider it a reasonable deal. These days, they absolutely will not accept this unless they get a lot more space, obnoxious animations, force-play videos, and overlays that you have to click through, and often various registration walls, cross-site tracking, e…

> My VR goggles will gray out billboards

Only if the billboard doesn't qualify for "acceptable billboard ads" (or you could jailbreak and run a different billboard blocker like a rebel)