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Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think this increase in commercials is just aimed to make you stupid. In tandem with a lot of other things post 9/11, to decrease your ability to function and think rationally.
I.e. no child left behind, dumbing down in school, dumbing down through reality tv, loosening of privacy standards (i.e. taking your shoes, clothes off at the airport). Thus, the sexual enhancement cream at 8 pm on Animal Planet when your kids are watching.
-The drug ads are obnoxious and unfit for tv. Why are cigarettes so taboo on tv, yet you can talk about erectile dysfunction, sexual enhancement, etc.
The drug ads are much more embarrassing than alcohol or cigarettes. It's like there's a small function in this country that wants you embarrassed, or they want private things out in the open. Why hasn't the FCC stepped in, and done something about sexual disorders being broadcast at 8pm when kids are watching?
You know there have been complaints. Same thing at the airport. All the nonsense and intrusion of privacy is allowed.
-If you look at commercials from the 80's or early 90's, they were normal and fit for tv.....car commercials, long distance telephone, mcdonalds, etc.
-I think the increase in commercials and increase in volume, means cable is getting desperate. The game is about up with the internet and youtube, and content being created so easily by people. I think more long time tv viewers are going to say no if tv continues on this trend.
Commercials are no fun but they're what pays for the show. Your cable bill has nothing to do with it (that just pays for Comcast's operations).
That's not entirely true; cable carriers pay the individual cable stations (ESPN, FX, Disney, etc.) in order to carry the cable stations' content on their cable systems.
Commercials are no fun but they're what pays for the show. Your cable bill has nothing to do with it (that just pays for Comcast's operations). With television shows becoming increasingly more expensive coupled with the fact the companies now pay less to advertise on TV due to the ability to fast forward through them on DVR's, you get more commercials.
Commercials are loud and I can tell you how and why too! (I work in the film industry doing sound and music)
There is a battle going on in the audio and music industry called the "loudness wars" that the general public is generally completely unaware of. Record labels and advertising agencies are using sound compression to increase the overall "perceived" loudness of any given track in order to compete with one another. I won't go into the details of how it's done because it's really complicated (involving sound waveforms and how digital media records it) but I will say that a lot of musicians and audiophiles hate this because in order to increase the loudness if the track, you have to sacrifice dynamics (differences between loud and soft). Most musicians, including myself are of the opinion that dynamics are half of what makes music great to listen to. With good dynamics, you have bass drum kicks that really kick, choruses that really take off from the verses, etc. Basically, it makes music interesting. Don't get me wrong; you need some compression but nowadays studios compress the tracks to no end completely sacrificing dynamics in order to increase how loud the track is overall. If people want loud tracks, then they can turn up the volume knob! This is precisely why DJ's usually use analogue records during shows (for other than scratching anyway lol). Analogue recordings are able to get louder without sacrificing dynamics so you really feel the beats.
Ad agencies do this too with commercials in order to grab your attention and compete with other commercials. It has actually got so out of hand that the FCC is indeed about to step in and mandate a minimum compression differential that all commercials must not exceed (the lower the differential, the louder the track is).
Yeah, I think it's obvious WHY they're so loud. It's just annoying and actually achieves the exact opposite goal of the advertiser. They want us to pay attention and instead we mute it or turn it off.
Seeing as how there is no longer "free" television programming and you HAVE to pay for t.v., it seems like we're mostly paying for commercials.
This isn't true. I agree that commercials are annoying and commercial breaks seem to be getting longer, but you can still get tv over the air for free. I have a digital tv and an $8 antenna that I got from Amazon and I get all the networks and a bunch of other channels (most of which are worthless churchy garbage and infomercials, but some are quite interesting and entertaining).
I got rid of cable because I have no interest in ESPN, and with basic cable, that's most of what you're paying for.
This isn't true. I agree that commercials are annoying and commercial breaks seem to be getting longer, but you can still get tv over the air for free. I have a digital tv and an $8 antenna that I got from Amazon and I get all the networks and a bunch of other channels (most of which are worthless churchy garbage and infomercials, but some are quite interesting and entertaining).
I got rid of cable because I have no interest in ESPN, and with basic cable, that's most of what you're paying for.
That's great news for you. We did try the antenna thing. We live in the city on a bus route, and for some reason every time (every 5 minutes) a bus goes by the screen would be scrambled and freeze.
That's why we ended up with cable.
I really have no problem foregoing cable or satellite to just watch hulu, youtube, or other online programming sites. The problem is convincing my husband
Cable networks are struggling and having more commercials is the reason they are able to continue. A lot of networks have gone as far as cutting coffee budget and wardrobe budgets on the sets of their shows. The networks are a business just like any other and have to make a profit. It's nice having a DVR but the DVR is also the reason for more commercials because a large segment of the population doesnt watch them and advertisers know it so they pay less.
Yep. People seem to be forgetting that commercials are what pay for the tv programming. TV programs are intended to be vehicles for commercial viewing, not vice versa.
Some of the shows/movies advertise about every 7 minutes, and then have commercials that run for 5 minutes! I realize airtime is expensive, but jeesh!
And the irritating increase in volume - I love the mute button on the remote. I heard or read somewhere that the FCC is going to start cracking down again on the volume issue.
I watched some older tv shows that are on on DVDs now and found that the original shows ran for a full 25 minutes, but when you see it on tv today, they've cut out about 8 minutes or so to run more commercials.
Last edited by katie45; 01-23-2012 at 09:21 AM..
Reason: typo
yes, we have also noticed that there seem to be a lot more commercials during the programs, they are just a tad louder, just enough to annoy you.
Some of the music scores with these commercials are awful
Now the higher cable channels, they have double the amount of commercials. so annoying already, and while were at it, what about you tube and now on the computer we have freaking commercials.
That's not entirely true; cable carriers pay the individual cable stations (ESPN, FX, Disney, etc.) in order to carry the cable stations' content on their cable systems.
It's not nearly enough to pay for all of the station's programming. TV shows nowadays are expensive! They've brought in much better writers, anctors, and sets are much more elaborate for the most part. The good news is the programming is better overall. The downside is they're riddled with commercials and if the show doesn't perform well and quickly, the networks drop them.
Honestly my biggest pet peeve is shows that I really enjoy being canceled mid season. I was a huge fan of Caprica and Stargate Universe and both never got a chance to wrap things up.
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