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Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981)

nytimes.com

191–200 of 361 posts

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

#191

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.

So you want even better visibility for advertisers? Whenever a cigarette is lit, the overlay should also clarify that it’s a Marlboro?

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

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, uBlock Origin is very effective against Youtube. I never see ads on Youtube.

Do you mean display ads or pre-rolls? I don't get any display ads but I get pre-rolls constantly with uBO.

I'm using AdGuard and I don't get any ads ever on youtube. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adguard-adblocker/...

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

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Growth" is now one of my most hated overused business lingo, after "innovation". Is it too naive to hope that this pandemic will make us collectively question the value of creeds like growth for growth's sake?

To make it precise: growth is the next generation having a greater abundance than the current. If you care about global poverty, disease, famine etc. then you care about growth. Since we do not have levels of abundance which reach everyone even in rich societies, growth is everywhere a concern. To "question its value" is to say: since I have sufficient wealth, that'll do for the planet.

Well, let’s optimize for those things then. Right now growth mostly means making the rich richer. Trickle down economics have been discredited for a while.

I wish governments would set quality of life targets instead of gdp targets. If you need to grow gdp to get to a better quality of life, fine, but please, let’s all stop spreading the lie that gdp growth inevitably leads to increased quality of life, because often it causes the reverse.

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

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, uBlock Origin is very effective against Youtube. I never see ads on Youtube.

Do you mean display ads or pre-rolls? I don't get any display ads but I get pre-rolls constantly with uBO.

I get neither with uBO. Seems that different people have different experiences, either due to outdated uBO filters or differences in YT behavior.

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

#195

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 ab…

I've argued about this numerous times: ISP's need to provide customers with an opt-in p2p license that adds a small fee to their monthly bill. This monthly fee is transferred to a central authority, the ISP does not make any profit from this fee. The license would allow users to torrent whatever content they want. Torrent trackers would be fully legal, their only legal obligation would be keeping track of torrent popularity and reporting this to the central authority every month or so. The central authority that receives the money from the ISP's then forwards the money to the creators of the content being distributed, divided based on the popularity reported by the trackers. A minimum baseline amount is provided to each creator to subsidize indie and struggling creators. And obviously geoblocking should be illegal but as the media companies would be making more money if they didn't geoblock, it gives them incentive to not do that.

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

#196

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…

FWIW, uBlock Origin is very effective against Youtube. I never see ads on Youtube.

Same for me, when i use youtube on my mobile i am flabbergasted by the amount of ads and 20 minute promo programs. Why and how can you watch that without a add blocker?

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

#197

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 ab…

Even in some first world countries sometimes you don't necessarily get much of the content, or so I've heard, and can't pirate either, because illegal.

Anecdotal, but atleast here in my poor country I'm less inconvenienced than when I was in Germany. I do sometimes feel guilty not being able to support the creators that make this content and often wish there was a way to donate, much more than I wish that the distributors covered my country - because they're shit.

The piracy world that torrents/hosts for free, in my experience, seem to do a far better job.

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

#198
post #186

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…

> 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…

I'll take a stab at the simpler questions here:

> do you actually, you as the patient, choose which medication you receive for disease like that?

No, but I imagine patients liable to the advertising might mention a specific medication in a conversation with their doctor. Whether that has any effect depends on the advertisement/patient/doctor.

> Does your opinion override that of the doctor?

For prescription drugs, no.

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

#199

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…

Advertising isn't sales. Advertising is presence. If you're cognizant of an ad at all, then it worked, whether you buy the product or not.

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

#200
post #186

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…

> 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 then why not switch to a different doctor?

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