Bottom of Screen Ads: Annoying or Necessary?

[brewnog]

Brewnog, how often does the rates to watch TV go up for you?

It seems like they go up by a bit every few years. The BBC has recently more-than-doubled its number of channels though with the introduction of Freeview Digital Terrestrial tv. It's free, as long as you still pay your normal license fee.

I think (but I'm not sure) that that's because we have to pay for a TV license here and some of that fee goes directly to the BBC.

This is indeed the case. Most of your license fee goes to the BBC.


My favourite thing about TV Licences is that the price for a black & white license is 1/3 of that for a colour licence.

 

[egg]

the best thing about the tv license is that up until a couple of years ago if you were blind you got a whopping £3 off the fee!
bearing in mind the fees over £100 a year that kind of takes the **** a bit!

 

[FredGarvin]

I sat next to a commercial director [ie makes commercials] on one of my flights. He was talking about the morbid fear running through the TV advertising world these days: Apparently TIVO and other technologies coming soon can automatically skip commercials while recording. Now I think this technology could be defeated by the TV industry, and pretty easily perhaps, but like it or not, commercials will be embedded in movies and normal programming as a part of the plot to make up the difference.

You are right on Ivan. Now for the really bad news with that...The big business has *****ed and complained so much because Tivo users (like me) use it to record shows and then fast forward through the commercials. The commercial skip isn't fullproof. It will skip preset lengths of time, so it's a bit hit and miss. I don't use it. It's easier to use the ffwd. So advertising types are pressuring the Tivo people for a new additional technology that will show advertising banners while the Tivo is fast forwarding. Apparently they are going to comply. Ugh! What a crock.

http://www.bigmarv.net/how/tivo30secondskip.html

http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/000723.html

 

[brewnog]

the best thing about the tv license is that up until a couple of years ago if you were blind you got a whopping £3 off the fee!
bearing in mind the fees over £100 a year that kind of takes the **** a bit!

The concession for blind people is a 50% discount. Seems fair to me.

 

[Danger]

advertising types are pressuring the Tivo people for a new additional technology that will show advertising banners while the Tivo is fast forwarding

Of course if they do that, there will instantly be a booming black market for modified chips to prevent it, as there is now for satellite decoders.

 

[egg]

The concession for blind people is a 50% discount. Seems fair to me.

is now, never used to be!

 

[brewnog]

is now, never used to be!

Ah well, at least they sorted it. Welcome egg.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I guess it's somewhat understandable considering that the money advertisers pay to have their comercials played is the majority of any television stations income.

 

[Danger]

I guess it's somewhat understandable considering that the money advertisers pay to have their comercials played is the majority of any television stations income.

As irritating as I find most commercials, at least I can afford to watch TV here. I couldn't in the UK. And occassionally one shows up that's more entertaining (the first few times) than the show that it's sponsoring. Those of you in my age group surely must still giggle when you think of the old Alka Seltzer ads. (Mama mia! That's a some a spiiiicy meat-balls...)

 

[hypnagogue]

This http://www.futurama-madhouse.com.ar/scripts/1acv06.shtml from Futurama says it all. (The setting is in the future, 3000 AD.)

[Scene: Robot Arms Apartments: Fry and Bender's Apartment. Fry is asleep.]

[Fade to: Fry's dream. He is in a packed lecture hall.]

Teacher: Good morning class. I trust you've all prepared for today's final exam.

Fry: Uh, excuse me? I missed a few lectures. What subject is this?

Teacher: Ancient Egytian algerbra.

[She points to the blackboard, revealing it is filled with Egyptian hieroglyphs. Fry gasps.]

Fry: What a nightmare!

Teacher: Mister Fry. Are those your underpants?

[Fry looks down and sees he is only wearing his briefs. He stands up and the whole class laughs and points. Fry gasps.]

Teacher: Young man, I think it's time you learned a lesson about Lightspeed brand briefs.

[She pulls down a poster showing the briefs.]

Voice over: Lightspeed fits today's active lifestyle. Whether you're on the job [Fry is shown at a company meeting wearing just Lightspeeds.], or having fun [Fry is shown with a woman in her underwear.] Lightspeed briefs. Style and comfort for the discriminating crotch.

[Cut to: Fry and Bender's Apartment. The dream ends. Fry wakes up.]

Fry: Oh what a weird dream! I'll never get back to sleep!

[He falls asleep.]

[Scene: Planet Express: Lounge. The crew are sat around a table.]

Fry: So you're telling me they broadcast commercials into people's dreams?

Leela: Of course.

Fry: But, how is that possible?

Farnsworth: It's very simple. The ad gets into your brain just like this liquid gets into this egg. [He holds up an egg and injects it with liquid. The egg explodes.] Although in reality it's not liquid, but gamma radiation.

Fry: That's awful. It's like brainwashing.

Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?

Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio. And in magazines. And movies. And at ball games and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts and written on the sky. But not in dreams. No siree!

 

[Danger]

This http://www.futurama-madhouse.com.ar/scripts/1acv06.shtml from Futurama says it all.

What the hell did you just do to me, man? Is that a Mac-haters' site or something? I clicked on the bloody thing and my whole system locked up. Couldn't even get out with a force-quit. I had to reboot. (In case it wasn't a fault of my system, you might consider posting a warning to Mac users about that...)
I kinda remember that episode, though. It truly impresses me, some of the stuff those writers came up with. I was sorry to see it cancelled.

 

[hypnagogue]

Sorry, Danger. I'm not really familiar with that site, I just pulled it up with a Google search and then linked to it to source my post. However, from what I can see it looks quite kosher (no unnecessary javascript or anything), so I think your crash was just a quirk your system had at the time.

Anyway, here's a pseudo warning for others: you don't need to click the link, I already pasted the funny and relevant part.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It works okay for me and my IBM clone... I guess this is just another example of Mac superiority.

 

[hypnagogue]

The worst TV pop up I've seen is a pretty frequent one that shows up on G4TechTV. It's a wooden-looking bar at the bottom of the screen that randomly pops up and compresses the actual screen in the process. What makes it really annoying is that the ad for whatever show is 'spraypainted' onto the wooden bar, and they have sound effects for the spraypainting that's significantly louder than the actual show. So it's both a visual and an auditory distraction.

The worst network logo has to be MTV2's. It's about twice the size of the average network logo (or at least it seems that way, it's so big), and it's completely opaque! I conjecture that 20 years from now, almost the entire screen will be filled with MTV2's logo, and the actual programming will be relegated to a tiny box in the upper left hand corner.

Both of these examples are doubly annoying in that you can infer that the advertisers think (know?) they can get away with being more obnoxious with younger viewers. Of course, that only sets the table for today's obnoxious, program-interfering advertising to become the norm eventually, as the next generation learns to put up with even more egrigious offenses.

But in a way, what's worse is that the Science Channel's logo also interferes with their programming sometimes, even though it's not as outright obnoxious. It's one thing to be interrupted while watching a music video or a show about video games that are probably aimed at kids with low attention spans. But the Science Channel has shows about scientific topics, and presumably what matters is the actual information being conveyed. If the SC airs a program that has text running along the bottom of the screen at some points (fairly common), then you won't be able to read the text in the lower right hand portion of the screen, thanks to the network logo. Given the context, that's an even worse offense than the above examples.

 

[Danger]

I think your crash was just a quirk your system had at the time.

Quite possibly. It has a few. Macs process stuff differently, and sometimes a perfectly innocent piece of programming can knock it into a loop. I didn't bother getting 'Virtual PC' because it runs too slowly to be worthwhile.

It works okay for me and my IBM clone... I guess this is just another example of Mac superiority.

Quiet, you. This thing is over 6 years old and seems to keep up to yours.

 

[Moonbear]

It works okay for me and my IBM clone... I guess this is just another example of Mac superiority.

MY Mac didn't have any problems with that.

(Now, if only someone would make a keyboard that didn't have the letters painted on...I have the same problem with both Macs and PCs that when I type, my fingernails hit the keys and scratch off all the letters...only a problem on laptops, where the keyboards are totally flat...at least I can always recognize my own laptop if someone tries to steal it.)

 

[Moonbear]

The worst network logo has to be MTV2's. It's about twice the size of the average network logo (or at least it seems that way, it's so big), and it's completely opaque! I conjecture that 20 years from now, almost the entire screen will be filled with MTV2's logo, and the actual programming will be relegated to a tiny box in the upper left hand corner.

Well, it WAS MTV that started this nonsense. They had their logo down on the bottom of the screen long before anyone else did. I think it started around the time VH1 started gaining popularity since it would otherwise be difficult to identify which music video station you were watching based on just having a music video on the TV. VH1 quickly followed suit, and then all the other moron stations followed as well, even though it serves no purpose. Then the logos started getting bigger, and more opaque.

 

[Danger]

MY Mac didn't have any problems with that.

Wouldn't if you're running Jaguar. I'm on OS9.

 

[Moonbear]

MY Mac didn't have any problems with that.
Wouldn't if you're running Jaguar. I'm on OS9.

Geez, don't you think it's time to upgrade? How can you possibly be bragging about Mac superiority on OS 9? Egad! When I was still using OS 9, I was very much a PC supporter (do you know how many times I had to restart the computer in a day?)! It wasn't until OSX came out that I became a convert. You should still be able to upgrade even a 6 yr old Mac to OS X. I've done it in our lab with some of the early iMacs (the smoke colored ones, not the grape, blueberry, strawberry ones...what was Apple thinking with those?) They don't run wonderfully, but they manage. I can't say the same for attempts to upgrade the OS on my old PC laptop (well, it's not relevant, I need to open the case and snap cards back into place every time I pick it up...stupid piece of $#!+...but I just didn't know any better when I bought that one; the company manufacturing it has gone out of business).

 

[Danger]

Geez, don't you think it's time to upgrade? How can you possibly be bragging about Mac superiority on OS 9?

It's a 233 mHz G3 w/ 95 meg physical and 140 meg virtual RAM. The only reason I have it is because somebody who upgraded sold it to me for $150. As for the superiority, it runs absolute spirals around the 800mHz Pentium w/ 1g RAM that I have to use at work. (It loads Photoshop 6 in less than 7 seconds, and that's good enough for me.) I can overclock it to 300mHz by moving one jumper, but it's in a confined area and I don't want to overheat it. I do have direct performance comparisons, by the way; I keep my pool league stats on Excel and swap back and forth between home and work. That poor pitiful little PC just can't cut it.