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Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

nytimes.com

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

#91

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…

> It's like a creeping cancer that cannot be stopped

Billboards are heavily regulated and sparse in New Zealand. It can be stopped, but it takes willpower and hard work.

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

#92
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reason you can block ads on the web is because there was a small window where the idealistic academics that built the internet and the web were able to keep commercial interests out so they were able to use open universal protocols. The same will not be true for VR.

It’s already not true on mobile generally. No view source, no extensions, no user injected scripts. You get the page the server wants you to see.

On the upside, some content of independent authors is largely supported via avenues like Patreon and tips, not ads.

Most of the websites I produce do not have ads on them. I don't make much money, but I do make some and it's better than it used to be. I'm hopeful that there will be more of a trend towards small content producers making enough to survive and we can begin to crowd out the "cancer" that is some of the worst commercialized stuff.

It doesn't have to go away completely. We can just refuse to let it choke everything.

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

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

IIRC, the licensing arrangement between Hulu and the network prohibits not showing ads on those shows, or some such nonsense.

The networks have always entirely owned Hulu. It's that way because they want it to be.

Netflix has no such network licensing problems.

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

#95
post #30
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s already not true on mobile generally. No view source, no extensions, no user injected scripts. You get the page the server wants you to see.

Android: firefox for android, or the plethora of adblock browsers out there iOS: adblockers are natively supported through "content blockers", plus there's a plethora of adblock browsers

But not possible in native apps which have largely supplanted the use of web pages.

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

#96
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, because it will be smart enough to know that I enjoy seeing that.

This is the real dystopia. Ever talk to the adtech experts? The question they ask is how can we display the ads that people will enjoy seeing the most? Hence Instagram is effectively all ads.

I'm willing to try that. So far, I only see ads I hate.

What ever happened to gold like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcWPusAmaWI

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

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The measures depicted in Black Mirror are straight up torture. Loud noise to punish people who refuse to look at advertisements? That level of abuse should be cause for violent resistance.

Doubtful the sheeple would resist. That would take too much effort. It's just easier to watch the commercial. Wasn't there one that just paused the video, and would not continue until you watched the ad? The advertisers have to crawl before they can run. But if they had their way, loud noises would not be beyond their acceptable measures. I mean, they did spend all of that money producing the ad, so the least you can…

> Doubtful the sheeple would resist. That would take too much effort. It's just easier to watch the commercial.

No, neo-Luddites will. If they aren't successful later generations will eventually forget how it was to not have coercive ads, so they won't have the same visceral response to the indignities they cause. Sort of like what happened with the market system.

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

#98
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 the difference is that the infrastructure is decoupled from the content now. Cable systems and satellite fleets were both traditionally very high barriers for new competitors to overcome. Granted, consolidated media oligopolies may get us to the same place a different way.

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

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's only a matter of time until sites are rendering ads and content via websockets and wasm.

If it runs client side there’s an ability somewhere to control it.

Until ads run in a trusted enclave. DRM for streaming paves the technological path.

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

#100
post #30
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s already not true on mobile generally. No view source, no extensions, no user injected scripts. You get the page the server wants you to see.

Android: firefox for android, or the plethora of adblock browsers out there iOS: adblockers are natively supported through "content blockers", plus there's a plethora of adblock browsers

> or the plethora of adblock browsers out there

I use Brave, is there another someone likes more?

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