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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)

#161

Post by saagarjha »

_frog wrote: post #68
sneak wrote: 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.

This largely only really true on Android. iOS at least lets you install content blockers that work with Safari as well as any embedded web browsers within apps. The only place I typically see ads on iOS is in free to play games, and in those cases that's usually a pretty good incentive to play something else.

> iOS at least lets you install content blockers that work with Safari as well as any embedded web browsers within apps.

Only if the app uses SFSafariViewController.

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

#162

Post by TeMPOraL »

the_duke wrote: post #112
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #39

I 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.

> I really wish there were laws mandating a very obvious " this scene was sponsored by X" overlay.

I'd want that too.

I'd love to get my hands on even one list of all product placements in a given show; it would be trivial to make a userscript that overlays such data over a Netflix stream, as an artistic project. I suspect there's a strong point to be driven there.

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

#163

Post by tzs »

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.

How quickly does Netflix get those shows? I believe Hulu gets them the day after broadcast. Maybe the network licensing term are different depending on the delay between broadcast and streaming?

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

#164

Post by TeMPOraL »

cheschire wrote: post #118
hacym wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 qu…

> It's better to first introduce ads into the current subscription plan, and then introduce ad-free subscription levels at a higher price.

The moment you introduce ads to your service you invite a disease that will rot your service to the core.

The next step after ad-free subscription levels at a higher price is... ad-full subscription, because why leave money on the table, when you can get people to subscribe and then show them ads anyway (maybe different ads, maybe less of them, but still).

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

#165

Post by pmlnr »

meh2frdf wrote: post #152
caseysoftware wrote: post #26

It'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.

In the UK the amount of minutes is regulated for broadcast.

Yet it's still unwatchable with so many commercials.

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

#166

Post by orhanhh »

msla wrote: post #139
jarjoura wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People had watch parties the moment episodes dropped for GoT. Bars would even air episodes in later years. Most of the world watched it together, both legally and illegally. It was definitely the same thing.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/30/media/game-of-thrones-season-... > Sunday's episode of "Game of Thrones" notched a series record of 17.8 million viewers, according to HBO. "The Long Night" broke the record set by the season premiere just two weeks ago when 17.4 million viewers tuned in. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/02/2... > 106 million people watched ‘M.A.S.H.’ finale 35 years ago. No scrip…

Do you think these are counted differently? TV viewers statistics often use average number of people in a household, iirc. I would guess the HBO number is just the actual number of plays, no matter how many people viewed on that screen.

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

#167

Post by anpat »

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…

Probably because it still earns them money over not showing you anything!

I have come to believe that over a period of time producers and consumers both will realise that the middleman cares more about it’s own cut over either of them.

Less cynical thoughts;

1. I don’t know if and what kind of controls/flexibility YouTube allows on demand side, but it could be a “foot meet gun” story. ie advertiser is new to platform and messed up targeting and/or is over-bidding.

2. Advertiser might think 1 cent CPM is worth it, no one else bothers to bid on your data (based on your description) - still kinda ties into cynical view.

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

#168

Post by jwr »

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…

They get paid for displaying the ads to you, so that's what they do :-) It's really that simple. And they will continue to do that while advertisers get a return on their ads (it isn't clear if they do, sometimes it can take a while for the market to realize that a certain fad strategy simply does not work). But I'm guessing it does work.

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

#169

Post by klausjensen »

I don't pirate because I don't want to pay for content - I pirate because it is the only way I can get a lot of content.

I wish there was a global way to subscribe to and pay for content in a market/app-independant way.

If you are not in the USA, Canada or UK, your options to pay for the most popular, newest content are very, very limited. And if you are in a very small and/or somewhat impoverished country, forget about it. "Sorry, this content is not available in your region. Please go fuck yourself".

Luckily, Netflix has improved this a lot (which is why I happily pay for it), but for a lot of content, it is still impossible to consume in a legal way.

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

#170

Post by dataduck »

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…

Maybe Google's algorithms have determined that the floor wax company doesn't look at / understand its analytics reports.
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