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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)

#311

Post by rhino369 »

drevil-v2 wrote: post #200
nolok wrote: 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…

Every time I am visiting USA, I am flabbergasted at the medication ads on TV. Not just for off-the-counter stuff like paracetamol or anti-inflammation medication but actual freaking prescription only drugs. And they actually ask you to speak to your doctor about the drug. Haha what? Shouldn't my doctor morally and by default be suggesting the best treatment for what I have? And if I don't trust his/her treatment plan…

Partially its about getting you to just talk to your doctor about your health issues.

A lot of people have arthritis, but don't go to the doctor. They'll pop some pain killers and deal with it like humans have forever. But a Humira commercial is designed to get them to ask their doctor about it.

Partially its get your doctor thinking about maybe updating your treatment. A lot of people just coast on whatever they've been taking for a long time. I've heard occasionally Doctors find patients who are medicines that are quite outdated.

Now all that might be worse than no advertising, but there are reasons behind it.

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

#312

Post by pgt »

pandaman wrote: post #309
zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #157

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.

Anything smart enough to pass a Turing test is smart enough to fail it.

There's a story from a few years ago about how Target knew customers knew themselves, but they were smart enough to mix the diaper discounts in with some lawnmower specials so it would not arouse suspicions.

I would not be surprised if the algorithms know more than they seem.

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

#313

Post by rhino369 »

ntsplnkv2 wrote: post #257
xbmcuser wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can pay the $10~ per month for premium and get rid of the ads. Many people here on hn complain about the ads but are unwilling to pay to support non ad version at the same time.

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…

Does pi-hole work for youtube, hulu, etc.?

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

#314

Post by lrem »

zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #157

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…

Have you enabled some kind of privacy feature? There are some checkboxes in the Google account settings that make ads appreciably dumber.

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

#315

Post by rhino369 »

summerdown2 wrote: post #252
deelly wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

M-m-m... "small fee" for "unlimited access to millions of music/movie/software/game/books entities that can cost billions of dollars". How exactly it should work, again?

You realise that's exactly the model of libraries, right? A small fee (taxation) in return for open access to literature, and in most cases music and film too.

Libraries buy the books (and movies, music, etc.).

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

#316

Post by pandaman »

pgt wrote: post #312
pandaman wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Anything smart enough to pass a Turing test is smart enough to fail it. There's a story from a few years ago about how Target knew customers knew themselves, but they were smart enough to mix the diaper discounts in with some lawnmower specials so it would not arouse suspicions. I would not be surprised if the algorithms know more than they seem.

Are you talking about "Target knew a girl was pregnant before she knew herself!" story? It does not seem very credible tbqh and even if the particular event described in the NYT article actually had happened, a random advertisement reaching somebody from the intended audience is bound to happen from time to time.

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

#317

Post by vinay427 »

qppo wrote: post #288
xxpor wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As an American we may not want to be throwing the proverbial stone in that glass house

To be fair, I think their point in this case is many countries are in proverbial glass houses, some stronger than others.

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

#318

Post by BurningFrog »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #57
BurningFrog wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The TV zeitgeist is gone. People used to all watch the same shows at the same time.That made it the thing everyone had in common. Now TV is more like reading books. Everyone does it n their own time. It's still a big things, but it doesn't create a nationwide community. On top of this, you're also getting old :)

If you heard about Game of Thrones or Westworld or Stranger Things, or most recently, Tiger King, you'd realize this is very much still a thing for a large population. Weekly shows of certain types have massive speculation and plot discussion crowds with podcasts and analysis channels. Then there's a second viewership wave created by all the memes. Netflix's just drop the whole season model has cost them a lot in pub…

TV is still important, and the shows you mention are big.

But it's very far from how things were, say 20 years ago.

An interesting question is what the zeitgeist is now? I have two potential answers:

1. Nothing. The worlds has diversified on the net, and most people focus on their own smaller interests.

2. In terms of what everyone is talking and thinking about, my best answer is, unfortunately, Donald J Trump.

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

#319

Post by rhino369 »

beerandt wrote: post #94
zdragnar wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Netflix doesn't have the problem because they never had ads. Hulu likely signed a deal with ABC (or the production company who make the shows) for those three shows that still have ads before they had the idea to go commercial free. Changing a deal that had a provision about ads is expensive.

Hulu was a joint venture between several networks. There are three old shows that still have commercials due to old contracts that were made before they switched to the new business model.

Given TV deals are complicated (for example, the networks likely have revenue deals with production companies), its not worth a huge renegotiation.

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

#320

Post by lrem »

summerdown2 wrote: post #252
deelly wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

M-m-m... "small fee" for "unlimited access to millions of music/movie/software/game/books entities that can cost billions of dollars". How exactly it should work, again?

You realise that's exactly the model of libraries, right? A small fee (taxation) in return for open access to literature, and in most cases music and film too.

There is snowflake's chance in hell libraries would be legal if introduced now. The only reason we have them, is they were grandfathered in from times with less corporate power.
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