Ad Breaks

[jtaunton]

Has anyone noticed that the ad break in a half-hour programme now seems to come very early on - maybe only 6 or 7 minutes in. Do you think they are trying to soften us up for 'going American' and slip another ad break in during the remaining two-thirds of the programme ?

And secondly, especially on Channel 4, why are ad breaks so much louder than the rest of the programme ??

 

[ninebob]

Agree on both points. I particularly noticed it with CSI on channel 5 the other night, the characters had barely said good morning to each other before we were into a break!

 

[AdamW]

If you want a taste of the American way, go to ABCone on Freeview or Sky. They do that very annoying thing where they follow the order of

Prologue
Ads
Bit of programme
Ads
Bit of programme
Ads
Epilogue

Bloomin' annoying.

If the rules are changed to allow this (the amount of advertising allowed is strictly governed), then you will have two choices: bear it, or pay for premium services without ads (this is what some people do in the US).

My experience is that they seem to have more frequent, but shorter, ad breaks in the US. For instance, an episode of Star Trek runs for about 42 minutes. However, it runs for 60 minutes on Sky and an equal 60 minutes in the US. Just we lump the ads into one or two chunks.

 

[wedge69]

It was in the news the other day - Channel 5 have been fined for playing adverts louder than the actual program.

 

[jtaunton]

I believe that the reason that American comedies started showing sketches over the end credits was to keep people watching, as there would have been an ad break just before it. I'm going to stick my neck out and say it started with Roseanne, but may be wrong.

 

[Igorian]

And secondly, especially on Channel 4, why are ad breaks so much louder than the rest of the programme ??

It's to wake you up when you fell asleep watching Big Brother, so they can brainwash u into buying some crap while your still half asleep

 

[pipme]

Have an 'Auto Volume' setting which tends to cap the volume, can be slow to react on channel change, especially if fresh channel is at a 'quiet' moment ... Lends the casual viewer to unneccessary volume adjusting !!

PS. Adverts? I am inveterate hopper - never watch more than a tiny portion .. good 'uns .. dancing car, Nessy on Yellow Pages etc.. The products? Not interested.

 

[petewood]

We have been without tv since i disconnected the aerial at the beginning of July. We both agreed that most of the programming was pretty rubbish and I hate it when my kids get up in the morning and switch it on, get home from school and switch it on etc.

Last summer we went without it for about 4 months, and surprisingly no-one really missed it after a couple of days.

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

Way to go petewood. When I first went to work in Scotland (as a single fella). I only had me stereo, used to annoy me when I came back to Brum for the weekend and had to watch telly !!!

 

[ninebob]

I'm not sure if the same would apply now I'm back in dull Grantham, but when I lived in Brighton I was burgled and didn't bother replacing the TV for months because I was never in to watch it. Was much more gutted over my CD collection to be honest...

 

[Moz]

I have seen my watched prog .. Corrie St go from 14mins between adverts too 10 mins 13 secs a session ..
was great when Annie Walker era was there