Earlier quoted context omitted.
Possibly. But with original content it may just be through syndication as well.
Also, in-show product placements.
They already do this
Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)
111–120 of 361 posts
Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)
#112I will bet a lot that Netflix is headed this way too. Once Netflix stops growing, it will need to find additional growth, and advertisement will be the way to additional profit.
There is already plenty of product placement on Netflix.
The smoking is notorious, for example. They cram in cigarettes wherever they can, often to the detriment of the scene.
I really wish there were laws mandating a very obvious " this scene was sponsored by X" overlay.
Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)
#113It'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.
And a culture that has less respect for private property, for better or for worse. 4 states ban billboards fwiw
Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)
#114I will bet a lot that Netflix is headed this way too. Once Netflix stops growing, it will need to find additional growth, and advertisement will be the way to additional profit.
Or they just raise prices like they have done multiple times now.
Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)
#115And the real question is: will history repeat itself with Netflix, et al? HBO demonstrates that it’s still an open question.
> HBO demonstrates that it’s still an open question. What do you mean? Is HBO or HBO Go adding commercials?
They're not selling ads, but they do run a 15-30 second spot before each episode advertising one of their own shows. That doesn't really bother me for now, but it seems like a slippery slope towards showing two spots, or three, or selling those spots to other advertisers.
Side note, with all of the streaming subscriptions I have, I'm probably not saving any money compared to when I had traditional cable, but there are fewer commercials and the content is so much better.
Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)
#116I will bet a lot that Netflix is headed this way too. Once Netflix stops growing, it will need to find additional growth, and advertisement will be the way to additional profit.
There is already plenty of product placement on Netflix. The smoking is notorious, for example. They cram in cigarettes wherever they can, often to the detriment of the scene. I really wish there were laws mandating a very obvious " this scene was sponsored by X" overlay.
Which makes me wonder, internationally, if there aren't countries that would make them do that for their territory? I think in the Netherlands pretty much all kinds of tobacco advertising is banned, even the very creative ones (like opening a chain of bars named similar to one tobacco brand). And I just found a (Dutch language) site weakly referencing European rules around disclosure of product placement (though, in the context of television, that may be Netflix's loophole).
Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)
#117Earlier 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…
>this is very much still a thing for a large population
No, it's so radically different that while there is still zeitgeist related to TV, it's not wrong to say the "tv zeitgeist" is dead.
Following a TV show used to be even more in the moment than following sports are today. Either someone saw last night's game, or they didn't and you can't have a meaningful conversation with them. They might catch up watching the highlight reel but conversations will be shallower, and talking about one game becomes near-irrelevant by the time the next game airs. These days TV shows have the zeitgeist pattern of a recent video game release. Everyone works through the release at different paces, conversations are bounded by seeing how caught-up everyone is before getting into details, and the material has long enough shelf life that conversations can happen with months - or years - between different conversation participants seeing it.
Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)
#118I will bet a lot that Netflix is headed this way too. Once Netflix stops growing, it will need to find additional growth, and advertisement will be the way to additional profit.
Or they just raise prices like they have done multiple times now.
Eventually this kind of approach would torpedo their company's growth. Every price hike alienates part of their base who, for whatever reason, cannot or will not accept the new higher price and they will jump to another provider who is the same or cheaper in price even if the product they receive is worse.
At some point the price difference between the quality product and the cheap product becomes so vast that the quality product company must shrink either by reducing the quality of the product, or by reducing the manpower necessary to produce the quality product.
It's better to first introduce ads into the current subscription plan, and then introduce ad-free subscription levels at a higher price.
Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)
#119It's amazing how much commercials have crept in. If you watch an "hour long" show from the early 80s, it's roughly 48 minutes. If you watch a similar show from 10-15 years ago, it's closer to 44-45 and in the last few years, it's more like 42 minutes. I assume it's only going to get worse as TV ad revenue drops faster with more alternatives.
I don't find it amazing. 1980 was 40 years ago. For context, the first commercial TV broadcast in the US was in 1941, and it didn't really get going until the late 40s. For the format not to have found it's most profitable show length for an hour long slot 35 years after it started, and for it to still be evolving 40 years from that point with a huge amount of innovation in the tech isn't really surprising.
Re: Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)
#120Earlier 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…
Arguably Game of Thrones could be the last series to ever capture the attention of the entire world at the same time. Everyone I know watched it, all ages, and all different genre fans. Bars used to play the episodes to a packed crowd. It was truly epic.
I don’t think these other series you listed are anywhere close to the level GoT captured. They win awards and have big budgets and fans spread the word, but still nowhere near.