Commercial Over Load

[Michael G.]

I know businesses have to profit with sponsors supporting their product, BUT......

Ever notice lately everything video we watch on Fire Stick, Ruko, any streaming service,
and paid cable tv, there's more and more commercials sneaking into our lives every year?

Even half hour of news weather and sports, it comes down 15 minutes of commercials.

I heard once if you took the station breaks out of a 3 1/2 hour NFL game, we could watch the
whole game from snaps to finish in less then one hour.

Your Thoughts

[Michael G.]

Microsoft just announced they will be adding ads to our computer start-up menus soon.

[dtennent]

When I traveled to Japan back 25 years ago, the TV would replay a football game in less than an hour. Of course, they didn’t show any plays where a team didn’t make any yardage. So on occasion, you would just see alternating punts/returns.

On the other hand, they would show the entire playoff baseball game. The American announcers would do the play by play. During the commercial breaks, the Japanese announcers would come on to talk about the game.

[Stu from NYC]

My son taught me how to watch a football game.

DVR it and start watching an hour or more after game starts.

Catch up early 4th qtr and than decide if worth watching it with commercials.

[Blueblaze]

We almost escaped, during the age of the DVR, when the problem was having enough DVR space to record all of your programs so you could skip the commercials. But they cleverly stopped that by removing all watchable programming from live Tv. All it took to ween you off all those engaging comedy and drama shows you used to record was to substitute endless fake reality TV and game shows, and about 15 ever-more-ridiculous versions of NCIS .

Then they forced us to buy a dozen steaming platforms so we could surf endlessly though mountains of garbage in order to locate one program worth watching per day. And even then, every other word is the "F" word.

About once a week, I start surfing at 7:00, and call the wife at 8:00 if I find something. But most nights we usually just wind up watching 20-year-old reruns of some old show we used to watch but now no longer remember.

The great part about that strategy is that they can't find advertisers for the old shows. So you only get hit with a couple of minutes of self-promotion every half hour, instead of 5 minutes of inscrutable drug commercials for every 10 minutes of verbal abuse they inflict on you.

[Stu from NYC]

We almost escaped, during the age of the DVR, when the problem was having enough DVR space to record all of your programs so you could skip the commercials. But they cleverly stopped that by removing all watchable programming from live Tv. All it took to ween you off all those engaging comedy and drama shows you used to record was to substitute endless fake reality TV and game shows, and about 15 ever-more-ridiculous versions of NCIS .

Then they forced us to buy a dozen steaming platforms so we could surf endlessly though mountains of garbage in order to locate one program worth watching per day. And even then, every other word is the "F" word.

About once a week, I start surfing at 7:00, and call the wife at 8:00 if I find something. But most nights we usually just wind up watching 20-year-old reruns of some old show we used to watch but now no longer remember.

The great part about that strategy is that they can't find advertisers for the old shows. So you only get hit with a couple of minutes of self-promotion every half hour, instead of 5 minutes of inscrutable drug commercials for every 10 minutes of verbal abuse they inflict on you.

Now that they heard they cannot find advertisers they will approach the networks asking for low cost commercial time. The end is near

[fdpaq0580]

Even TOTV. Ads between post, in the posts. It's all about the money. It always has been.

[Stu from NYC]

Even TOTV. Ads between post, in the posts. It's all about the money. It always has been.

If they do not make money why would they continue?

[fdpaq0580]

If they do not make money why would they continue?

Some of my favorite videos are ads. Creative, funny. Most folks have a favorite or two. My favorite is for fresh seafood. A guy fights a grizzly bear for the salmon the bear just caught. Poor bear!

[Two Bills]

Many sporting events shown on tv seem more about the commentators and talking heads, rather than the game.
The time wasted with the inane questions, expert opinions, and the advertising, has made me give up watching most sporting events.

[Bill14564]

I...

I heard once if you took the station breaks out of a 3 1/2 hour NFL game, we could watch the
whole game from snaps to finish in less then one hour.

Your Thoughts

What you heard is ridiculous on its face.

There are 60 minutes of playing time in an NFL game so it is absolutely impossible to watch the whole game from snaps to finish in less than 60 minutes. Add in clock stoppage for timeouts, ball hang time on kickoffs, clock stoppage for incomplete passes or runs out of bounds, and clock stoppage on change of possession and the time increases beyond 60 minutes.

[Stu from NYC]

What you heard is ridiculous on its face.

There are 60 minutes of playing time in an NFL game so it is absolutely impossible to watch the whole game from snaps to finish in less than 60 minutes. Add in clock stoppage for timeouts, ball hang time on kickoffs, clock stoppage for incomplete passes or runs out of bounds, and clock stoppage on change of possession and the time increases beyond 60 minutes.

You can. Often takes 40 or so seconds between plays. If you skip the huddle and lining up save lots of time

[Michael G.]

Didn't the NFL one year try broadcasting a game without commentators ?

[Stu from NYC]

Didn't the NFL one year try broadcasting a game without commentators ?

Yes. Watched it but did miss some of the analysis.

[dhdallas]

I know businesses have to profit with sponsors supporting their product, BUT......

Ever notice lately everything video we watch on Fire Stick, Ruko, any streaming service,
and paid cable tv, there's more and more commercials sneaking into our lives every year?

Even half hour of news weather and sports, it comes down 15 minutes of commercials.

I heard once if you took the station breaks out of a 3 1/2 hour NFL game, we could watch the
whole game from snaps to finish in less then one hour.

Your Thoughts

You don't HAVE to watch TV with commercials. Quit being a tightwad and pay for the premium streaming services without ads. I don't have to suffer through any commercials on YouTube, Prime, Hulu, etc. because I pay for commercial-free shows and movies. I ditched cable years ago. Pay up or stop complaining.

[RoadToad]

You can. Often takes 40 or so seconds between plays. If you skip the huddle and lining up save lots of time

Exactly what we do. ALWAYS less han an hour.

[RoadToad]

You don't HAVE to watch TV with commercials. Quit being a tightwad and pay for the premium streaming services without ads. I don't have to suffer through any commercials on YouTube, Prime, Hulu, etc. because I pay for commercial-free shows and movies. I ditched cable years ago. Pay up or stop complaining.

Me too, unfortunately no longer an option on many content providers.
Tech newsletters are indicating that even more services will discontinue the adless option.

[huge-pigeons]

When did the nfl quarters become shorter than 15 mins?

[Cuervo]

I'm subscribe to YouTube TV and have more than enough recording time and when I watch things, I have recorded I skip through the commercial.
Also, if I forget I few commercials might slid by and then the commercial time switches to some type of nature spot, like a hummingbird drinking nectar from a flower.

[Sandy and Ed]

…and now ads are using up space on our smart phones. Now THAT really upsets. Notice that talk of the villages starting to have ads embedded as well. Was it Demolition Man that showed a futuristic society where commercial jingles were the only songs played on the air??

[Michael 61]

Commercials drive me crazy - I no longer watch any broadcast channels - I have no cable TV, and no streaming services (other than Amazon, which I get with my prime account, but rarely watch). I subscribe to several you tube channels (I pay the small extra monthly fee to avoid commercials), and I have an extensive library of classic films (1930s-1960s) on DVD I’ve collected over the years (over 5000 titles), to watch. So glad I have all those DVD titles now, so I don’t have to rely on streaming services, and many of my DVD titles aren’t even available on streaming services.

[opinionist]

I would stop paying for a streaming service if I was forced to watch commercials. Some promotions for new videos are expected.

[talonip]

I timed the Super Bowl. In first hour - 20 minutes of football and 40 minutes of commercials.

[Michael G.]

You don't HAVE to watch TV with commercials. Quit being a tightwad and pay for the premium streaming services without ads. I don't have to suffer through any commercials on YouTube, Prime, Hulu, etc. because I pay for commercial-free shows and movies. I ditched cable years ago. Pay up or stop complaining.

So your work around is to pay extra to eliminate commercial free shows and movies that shouldn't be there to begin with? chilout

[Goldwingnut]

Commercials are unfortunately a necessity, the cost of producing content is so much higher that most people can imagine and it gets more expensive every day. In the case of the NFL games, the gate receipts from the stadium that must be shared with the stadium owner and the visiting team fall grossly short of covering the expense of fielding the team, without advertisers and sponsors the football, and entertainment industry for that matter, would fail almost immediately.

Nothing is free, including the internet, what you get for “free” is paid for by the advertisers.

[mbene]

I have to admit that I do watch the Discover Card commercials with Jennifer Coolidge, Stifler's mom from American Pie, especially the one where she's going through the grocery store, I laugh every time it comes on!

We do use a DVR for the few shows we do watch.

[retiredguy123]

I timed the Super Bowl. In first hour - 20 minutes of football and 40 minutes of commercials.
There were 123.4 million viewers and a 30 second commercial cost $7 million. I think that is why they had 40 minutes of commercials.

[phojo]

Agree completely. A two hour movie takes three hours because of all the commercials. Greedy networks

[Robojo]

I know businesses have to profit with sponsors supporting their product, BUT......

Ever notice lately everything video we watch on Fire Stick, Ruko, any streaming service,
and paid cable tv, there's more and more commercials sneaking into our lives every year?

Even half hour of news weather and sports, it comes down 15 minutes of commercials.

I heard once if you took the station breaks out of a 3 1/2 hour NFL game, we could watch the
whole game from snaps to finish in less then one hour.

Your Thoughts

If you think that's bad wait till you find out what they've been doing to your brain with those apple ear buds

[RRGuyNJ]

We almost escaped, during the age of the DVR, when the problem was having enough DVR space to record all of your programs so you could skip the commercials. But they cleverly stopped that by removing all watchable programming from live Tv. All it took to ween you off all those engaging comedy and drama shows you used to record was to substitute endless fake reality TV and game shows, and about 15 ever-more-ridiculous versions of NCIS .

Then they forced us to buy a dozen steaming platforms so we could surf endlessly though mountains of garbage in order to locate one program worth watching per day. And even then, every other word is the "F" word.

About once a week, I start surfing at 7:00, and call the wife at 8:00 if I find something. But most nights we usually just wind up watching 20-year-old reruns of some old show we used to watch but now no longer remember.

The great part about that strategy is that they can't find advertisers for the old shows. So you only get hit with a couple of minutes of self-promotion every half hour, instead of 5 minutes of inscrutable drug commercials for every 10 minutes of verbal abuse they inflict on you.


Yep! Just last week we were on a roll! We watched "The long long trailer" 1950's Lucille Ball & Desi Arnez, "Yours, Mine & Ours" Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda 1960's then "Mr Roberts" Henry Fonda 1950's
Some of the best TV I have watched in a loooong time. Now I'm watching "Northern Exposure" on Amazon Prime. Good Time!

[Stu from NYC]

Agree completely. A two hour movie takes three hours because of all the commercials. Greedy networks

That is how they stay in business but since the invention of dvr with fast foorward two hour movie now takes about 2 hours 5 minutes

[Jhrath7@gmail.com]

I know businesses have to profit with sponsors supporting their product, BUT......

Ever notice lately everything video we watch on Fire Stick, Ruko, any streaming service,
and paid cable tv, there's more and more commercials sneaking into our lives every year?

Even half hour of news weather and sports, it comes down 15 minutes of commercials.

I heard once if you took the station breaks out of a 3 1/2 hour NFL game, we could watch the
whole game from snaps to finish in less then one hour.

Your Thoughts
Yes, I do think there are more and more commercials

[spinner1001]

I know businesses have to profit with sponsors supporting their product, BUT......

Ever notice lately everything video we watch on Fire Stick, Ruko, any streaming service,
and paid cable tv, there's more and more commercials sneaking into our lives every year?

Even half hour of news weather and sports, it comes down 15 minutes of commercials.

I heard once if you took the station breaks out of a 3 1/2 hour NFL game, we could watch the
whole game from snaps to finish in less then one hour.

Your Thoughts

The major streaming services were suffering financially and took action to boost profitability. Growing revenue from advertising was one action that they took overall, generally in 2023. If all streaming services show ads, we have few alternatives. The good ol' days of ad-free viewing on a basic subscription are over.

Access Denied (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/18/netflix-returns-to-growth-mode.html)

[mikeycereal]

I use adblocker and have no ad problems. My computer (win 11) startup doesn't have ads and if it did I'd fix it to the default.

On my new stick streaming service offered by spectrum, game replays have no commercials in the Vod section. The movies and TV show sections also have no commercials.

Whenever I watch a live game on my favorite MLB channel it will time out on breaks with no commercials, then later resumes.

Only when I watch NFL network or other commercial TV channels do I get those commercials. What bugs me most is the repeats of the same ones. Sick of hearing that "everything I do" song and don't want it stuck in my head. So I end up changing channels and just watch Youtube videos on my computer, which are ad blocked.

You can get around commercials fairly easy or just skip channels that keep repeating them. I think people who pay to not have commercials are falling for the pay us to not see them trick. I'd never do that. They aren't getting more of my money and I'm not watching their commercials.