Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix • Hacker News Board

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#91

Post by RHSeeger » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 4:19 PM UTC

icefox wrote: post #45

RHSeeger wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget that, as a non-sports-watcher, you get to pay a fee to subsidize all the sports channels you don't watch. It's not even the cost of the channels, per se... you get the extra "regional sports surcharge" on top of that.

At least Verizon FIOS in the Boston area lets you opt-out of all sports channels so you are not charged this fee.

Oddly enough, I recently moved to the Boston area (from NY) and I did not know this. I'll need to look into it. Nobody in my family has any interest in watching sports at all.

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#92

Post by leesalminen » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 4:22 PM UTC

macNchz wrote: post #13

nlawalker wrote: post #8

A question for those who have done more thinking on this than I have: I see cable TV going the way of the dedicated phone line - a bundled benefit you get for a very small fee on top of the primary benefit, which will be the internet connection. The overall cost of a subscription will remain roughly the same, but the cost will be allocated to the internet connection: much like mobile carriers are now basically free v…

I have Time Warner internet-only service in NYC and they are constantly trying to sell me cable as a $10/month addon to my $35 50mbit internet package. I imagine it's a pretty limited set of channels, but they're very much already using that sales tactic.

Comcast even offered me 100+ channels, HBO and Showtime for free for a year just to get me hooked on the boob tube.

Luckily CenturyLink installed FTTH in my complex. That was the best phone call I've ever had with Comcast :).

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#93

Post by ahlatimer » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 4:24 PM UTC

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #81

eitally wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mine only ever see it in hotel rooms on vacation. The first time they experienced it, my son got very upset because we could pause it when he had to use the bathroom. The commercials irritated my wife & I so much we just turned it off entirely.

My wife and I watch Netflix when we do watch anything (we have twin two year olds, so this is a rare luxury). For some reason or other we turned on 'regular' tv the other day and there was an NFL game on. We could not believe how many commercials there were! Also, just how insultingly unintelligent they were. I mean, who actually would want to watch these commercials!?

As a football fan, the quantity of commercials is something else. CBS is particularly bad. You'll often see a touchdown, PAT, commercial break, cut back to the kickoff with the ball in mid-air which results in a touchback (so like 5 seconds worth of "content" which is really just a ball flying through the air and a guy catching it and kneeling down) followed by another round of commercials. It's insane.

When I get particularly frustrated with it, I pause the game and go do something else for a good 15-20 minutes, then come back so I can at least fast forward through some of them.

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#94

Post by gorner » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 4:29 PM UTC

cletus wrote: post #76

Here's another explanation: every year the TV audience gets older [1]. Advertisers notoriously chase the coveted 18-49 demographic. Younger viewers are increasingly not watching traditional TV. So, you can view Time Warner's move to cut ads in prime time as simply a way of raising prices by reducing supply (inventory). As for cable companies shoving TV packages down customers throats, well that's easy to explain. The…

Time Warner Inc. (the company discussed in OP's article that owns HBO, CNN etc.) has been a separate company from Time Warner Cable since 2009.

TWC is the one that Comcast tried to buy (and is now trying to merge with Charter).

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#95

Post by Spoom » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 4:30 PM UTC

dudul wrote: post #19

nlawalker wrote: post #8

A question for those who have done more thinking on this than I have: I see cable TV going the way of the dedicated phone line - a bundled benefit you get for a very small fee on top of the primary benefit, which will be the internet connection. The overall cost of a subscription will remain roughly the same, but the cost will be allocated to the internet connection: much like mobile carriers are now basically free v…

Already very much the case. All discounts and special offers always apply only to "triple-play" packages. Want Internet only? You end up paying a premium. I think you're right with one potential exception: sports. And it's hard for me to have a lot of visibility on that because I don't personally follow sports, but sport dedicated networks are probably one of the main reasons people go with more expensive cable packa…

FWIW I was able to get a 50% discount for a year on AT&T U-Verse internet-only. I think they might be playing hardball now though since their retention department claims that that discount is no longer available.

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#96

Post by freehunter » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 4:44 PM UTC

unoti wrote: post #84

Netflix has sponsored all this cutting edge research on recommendation engines, and it can predict very well how much I'm going to enjoy something. Why in the world won't it just show me a list of 4 and 5 star things? Are they afraid I'll just watch those things over the course of a month then stop subscribing? The clunkiness of their UI isn't incompetence, it's by choice, right? Or am I missing some important part o…

I rate every single thing I watch on Netflix and I've never had their recommendations be accurate for my tastes. I have a feeling they recommend things they want you to watch, rather than things they think you'll like.

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#97

Post by RyanMcGreal » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 4:46 PM UTC

jackgavigan wrote: post #10

It astounds me how much US TV airtime is devoted to adverts - roughly 18 minutes out of every hour, AFAIK (plus any split-screen advertising shenanigans). In the UK, (outside the BBC, which doesn't have adverts) TV broadcasters are limited to an overall average of 7 minutes per hour, with limits of 12 minutes for any individual clock hour (which drops to 8 minutes during primetime). The BBC's Natural History unit del…

I wonder if the marginal value of a TV ad impression declines as the number of ads per hour goes up.

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#98

Post by guelo » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 4:58 PM UTC

> cable channels have actually sped up re-runs to get two minutes more of advertising per show.

Wow. It's like a reverse TiVo, fast forward through the content to show more ads.

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#99

Post by MiddleEndian » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 5:10 PM UTC

unoti wrote: post #84

Netflix has sponsored all this cutting edge research on recommendation engines, and it can predict very well how much I'm going to enjoy something. Why in the world won't it just show me a list of 4 and 5 star things? Are they afraid I'll just watch those things over the course of a month then stop subscribing? The clunkiness of their UI isn't incompetence, it's by choice, right? Or am I missing some important part o…

As someone who prefers movies to series, their recommendations were fantastic for their DVD plan. Their streaming selection is much more limited (I found that maybe 10% of the movies I wanted to see were available) so they have to mask it.

(I have no idea if their delivery service recommendations are still good because they decided my address was fake when I moved and cancelled my account)

Re: Cable companies have started showing fewer ads because of Netflix

#100

Post by solotronics » Thu, Nov 12, 2015, 5:11 PM UTC

surge wrote: post #23

ssharp wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to "flail around" while still having two billion in annual profits.

They're flailing because they're not showing growth and share holders hate that. If they show a 2% loss in subscribers or subscriber growth stagnates, that's enough for them to freak out, despite their profits.

I work for the commercial fiber part of a cable ISP and we have been growing 25%+ for dedicated commercial fiber for a few years now but the residential customer revenue is growing at a much lower rate.