Live data from Hacker News

Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

nytimes.com

301–310 of 361 posts

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

#302
post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GoT was in 10-20 million in final season worldwide. Seinfeld finale was 70-80 million in US alone. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-may-16-ca-50143... The numbers don’t even compare. With Seinfeld that’s literally 1 in 5 people in the US. GoT is what, maybe 1 in 100?

Overall, when accounting for all platforms and delayed viewing throughout the week, the final season of Game of Thrones averaged more than 44 million viewers per episode [1] Game of Thrones’ season 8 premiere was pirated almost 55 million times in the first 24 hours [2]. And this is when people have 100 times more choices every day. [1] https://observer.com/2019/05/game-of-thrones-finale-ratings-... [2] https://www.t…

Are these American figures or worldwide figures?

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

#303
post #224
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the exact same commercial for anti-AIDS drugs sixteen times per hour. European here, I will go over my surprise / weirdness about having ads for chronic disease medication like that, to ask : do you actually, you as the patient, choose which medication you receive for disease like that? Does your opinion override that of the doctor? Is it not ultimately a moot choice both by you and the doctor because the one you w…

Direct to consumer TV ads for pharmaceuticals were illegal in 1981. This did not change until 1997. As I remember it, in the few years after 1997 there were still relatively few drug ads on TV. It was nothing like today. It seems like the number of ads has dramatically increased in more recent times I would guess because many large pharmaceutical companies lack the pipelines they had in the 1990's and are under more…

> It seems like the number of ads has dramatically increased in more recent times

Don't neglect to account that it may be that as you grow older, you are more likely to encounter these types of ads because the drug companies target older consumers as they are more likely to need the product.

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

#304
post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just use a Pi-hole server now. I don't have a problem paying for subs, I use Apple Music and used Spotify, I like Netflix or Prime. But Google/Youtube is unethical with their ads. Yesterday I saw an ad showing "the police kidnapping people in california" from a Russian account. No way to report it anymore, now way to prove it was true, a blatant example of trying to influence people negatively. I'll support the con…

Isn't Pi-hole unethical?

Is antivirus unethical

Advertisements have all the downsides, are used in tremendously unethical ways including abhorrent views and as a malware propagation network. It is my duty to put heavy adblockers on as a layer of protection.

And it's none of their concern what I download to my computer. If they want to do more serverside logic to make sure I download their crap,it's going right in to /dev/null

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

#305
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the exact same commercial for anti-AIDS drugs sixteen times per hour. European here, I will go over my surprise / weirdness about having ads for chronic disease medication like that, to ask : do you actually, you as the patient, choose which medication you receive for disease like that? Does your opinion override that of the doctor? Is it not ultimately a moot choice both by you and the doctor because the one you w…

The first goal of drug advertising is to define a category and convince people they have a disorder that no one had ever heard of before. Viagra invented "erectile disfunction" and went on to make billions of dollars, and an industry was born.

So in this context you are saying that HIV is a disorder that was invented by advertisers in order to sell anti-virals? Do you have any evidence to substantiate that(or your claim that ED is not a clinical condition?)

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

#306
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why Hulu is a nonstarter for me. If I'm paying, no ads, period.

You won’t use Hulu because three shows have ads - Greys Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder and Agents of Shield?

No, actually: because they started out as ad-only, then added paid subscriptions while still forcing their subscribers to watch ads, and that is when I decided it was not for me. Maybe they've been evolving in a more positive direction if there are only a few shows left with ads?

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

#307
post #271
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the exact same commercial for anti-AIDS drugs sixteen times per hour. European here, I will go over my surprise / weirdness about having ads for chronic disease medication like that, to ask : do you actually, you as the patient, choose which medication you receive for disease like that? Does your opinion override that of the doctor? Is it not ultimately a moot choice both by you and the doctor because the one you w…

As an American, what shocked me in the UK was the amount of ads for sports gambling. Literally every commercial during games was for a betting site. It felt pretty gross.

UK sports (or sports TV at least) is very tightly linked to gambling. Many football teams are sponsored by gambling companies.

About 15 years ago there was a huge debate about whether we should allow “American-style” supercasinos but we just did it through sport instead.

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

#308

Im enjoying Hulu/Netflix/Prime Video while I can. My kid has grown up in a household without commercials and where you get points for who can hit “skip” the fastest when one does pop up. Commercials were always annoying but when you aren’t used to seeing them then it really hits home that your seeing the exact same commercial for floor wax sixteen times an hour and the exact same commercial for anti-AIDS drugs sixtee…

If there were such a thing as a "this person isn't worth showing ads to" profile, people would game the system to try to earn those tags. Even if you never made ad-influenced decisions, it's probably still worth showing you ads to normalize them for people who do.

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

#309

Im enjoying Hulu/Netflix/Prime Video while I can. My kid has grown up in a household without commercials and where you get points for who can hit “skip” the fastest when one does pop up. Commercials were always annoying but when you aren’t used to seeing them then it really hits home that your seeing the exact same commercial for floor wax sixteen times an hour and the exact same commercial for anti-AIDS drugs sixtee…

I would be very worried if I started to see relevant advertisement (online or I also have the cheapest Hulu with commercials) : that would mean that somebody collects correct information about me and can sensibly interpret it. Luckily all the advertisement I see is barely relevant - at most I get banners for the sites I've recently visited.

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

#310
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the exact same commercial for anti-AIDS drugs sixteen times per hour. European here, I will go over my surprise / weirdness about having ads for chronic disease medication like that, to ask : do you actually, you as the patient, choose which medication you receive for disease like that? Does your opinion override that of the doctor? Is it not ultimately a moot choice both by you and the doctor because the one you w…

The first goal of drug advertising is to define a category and convince people they have a disorder that no one had ever heard of before. Viagra invented "erectile disfunction" and went on to make billions of dollars, and an industry was born.

Are you suggesting that impotence is an invented ("medicalized") condition? I should start a physicians of hacker news blog... Prozac and premenstrual dysphoric disorder is a better example.
Post reply on HN