TV Networks are now saying skipping commercials are illegal

[telecom_goddess]

i didnt mean it as a waste of time. it is a time-waster though. its the thing done when you have time to waste. lol.
i mean more like, if you are sitting, just chilling, staring at the screen, and not in a hurry to be anywhere or do anything, than it's hard to complain about commercials wasting your time when that time was free anyway. if you had something that you were in a hurry for, you wouldnt be watching a tv program slotted to run over that time in the first place.

sidenote: if people hate commercials so much, why not just go the REALLY old fashined way, and get a VCR. lol.

(all "you"s are generic of course)

ah that makes more sense. I know some people just thing tv is a total waste of time no matter what. And I love my tv

the commercials do bug me but again I tend to watch it in a form where I can fast forward through that junk or not deal with it.

[HYHYBT]

It is wasted time, though. Skipping commercials, I can watch three "half hour" episodes of almost anything in one hour of real time. Not skipping, that takes an hour and a half: half an hour of wasted time, which I did not slot for watching TV because I can skip the commercials.

[siead_lietrathua]

It is wasted time, though. Skipping commercials, I can watch three "half hour" episodes of almost anything in one hour of real time. Not skipping, that takes an hour and a half: half an hour of wasted time, which I did not slot for watching TV because I can skip the commercials.

mhm, but, when the station says they are broadcasting a show for between, say, 5-6pm. they havent made any lies about it taking an hour to watch, commercials included. i think shortening that time, while nice, is not anything the stations should be concerned about. with the exception of running long sports games, i've not seen a show go over it's advertised time.

ads in TV are the same as ads online, billboards on the street, or slotted into a magazine. it's just a part of this world, and it won't kill us to be patient.

really, what IS the rush....

[ChynaRose]

really, what IS the rush....

Because I have not quite half an hour/an hour, there's nothing currently on that I have any interest in watching, that one show I like is sitting in my DVR, and I'd rather not have to stop 15 minutes away from the (climatic) end because I've run out of time before I had to do something else.

Or, I managed to get home at 9:10 and if I can skip past the commercials, I can catch up with the 'live' broadcast of the show; as well as the 'live' broadcast of a show I like that airs at 10.

Or, I already sat through those particular commercials, but had to rewind the show to catch something that got missed and I kind of don't want to sit through them again.

[siead_lietrathua]

but, again, the TV advertised their show is a certian length. if a person dont have enough time to watch it, DVR or no, then that is not the fault of the station.
maybe it's because i see tv as a pasttime and not a nessesity *shrug* if i miss part, i miss it, that's what re-runs and box sets are for.
i've never had a dvr and never taped showed with a vcr, and dont think my life is lacking for it. it's just tv...

[Andara Bledin]

but, again, the TV advertised their show is a certian length. if a person dont have enough time to watch it, DVR or no, then that is not the fault of the station.

By that logic, they should keep the ads in for the DVD set.

Honestly, it's my time and I should be able to decide how I want to spend it and not be held hostage to not being able to (as in the tech exists but is artificially restricted) skip ads because the networks are keeping a death grip on an obsolete model.

^-.-^

[Racket_Man]

as someone mentioned before. I LOVED when I could tape (as in VCR taping) shows. I could either fast-forward over the commercials OR with one VCR I had hit a buttion that would auto FF 30 seconds. Got real good with that little feature. I could usually judge how long the commercial break would be and get maybe 5 to 10 seconds into the next show segment .

[siead_lietrathua]

but.. it's not being held hostage... it's a pastime you enjoy, sure, but you aren't going to die without TV. nor is any person entitled to TV viewing in their specific preferance. it's not a life nessesity.
the point of dvr when it first came out (from the *gasp* ads i saw) was to record something you didnt have time for so you could watch it later. i don't see the purpose of dvr becoming null if you can't skip the ads. the point was to, basically, have a digital version of what we used to do with vcrs. when you used to set the vcr on a timer, it did record ads.
TV advertising is still useful. i have dozens of people asking us if we have product XYZ they saw on tv in stock, wanting to know more. advertising does help generate sales, which helps me keep my job, and also employs a range of people from the heads of marketing departments to the guy that holds the boom mic when the ad's being filmed.

sorry, i've been up for almsot 24h straight. makes me rambly. lol.
all uses of the word "you" are in generics.

tl;dr: i don't understand why people hate ads so much.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

As the article points out, will networks then sue individual show watchers when they go to the bathroom during a commercial?

Well I'm really fucked. I watch all my shows commercial free. I have not seen a commercial in literally years.

Of course I watch all my shows either on Netflix or on DVD when they come out (usually the first season comes out when the third season starts running on TV these days) so I'm still paying for the production of said shows.

But Fox must hate my guts since their advertising revenue is wasted on me and my family since we don't see ANY commercials.

Guess it won't be long before the Networks send out their hired goons to break my kneecaps.

[siead_lietrathua]

that's just a smidge of an overreaction. they arent saying ads MUST be watched. they are just saying you shouldnt be able to fast forward them. you still have all the options of walking away. like before DVR was invented.

[Andara Bledin]

but.. it's not being held hostage... it's a pastime you enjoy, sure, but you aren't going to die without TV. nor is any person entitled to TV viewing in their specific preferance. it's not a life nessesity.

Just because it's not a necessity does not mean that being forced to wait for ads to play before being able to watch isn't unacceptable.

It's no better than the bullshit DVD makers pulled for a short while with unskippable previews. It's worth noting that that didn't last very long at all, and neither will this.

^-.-^

[telecom_goddess]

I forgot to mention before that I've noticed the "unable to fast forward thru commercials" on cable's on demand function now. Slightly annoying. But luckily I'm done catching up on tv shows on on demand for the moment.

Including House, saw the final episode...so sad it won't be on anymore

[MadMike]

tl;dr: i don't understand why people hate ads so much.

Because the ads have gotten out of hand. No one minded an occasional commercial way back when. But then the advertisers started getting greedy, and gradually made the commercial breaks longer and more frequent. It's not just the TV advertisers, it's advertisers in general. They seem hell-bent on filling up every possible space and moment with their damn ads. They're everywhere -- on busses, at gas pumps, on pizza boxes, embedded in video games, you name it. I even saw some on the urinals at a bar I went to a few months ago.

And as someone else mentioned, now they're putting them on DVDs and at the beginning of movies in theaters. When it's something that you're paying for, there's simply no excuse.

In short, the advertisers had a good thing going, but they ruined it by getting greedy.

[Nekojin]

When I was a child, a half-hour show was 25 minutes of show, and 5 minutes of commercials. Today, the average network shows 22 minutes of show, and 8 minutes of commercials... And some have gone even further, by doing stunts like minimizing the show's credits in order to run another commercial or two alongside the credits.

[daleduke17]

When I was a child, a half-hour show was 25 minutes of show, and 5 minutes of commercials. Today, the average network shows 22 minutes of show, and 8 minutes of commercials... And some have gone even further, by doing stunts like minimizing the show's credits in order to run another commercial or two alongside the credits.

Product placement is horrible as well. I understand on cooking shows that product has to be placed, yes. Now, Mike Delfino driving a Ford, that's different than a shelf full of Tide being blatantly shown at a grocery store.

It is like the scene in Wayne's World where they are talking about being corporate sellouts.