SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
This puts an actual smile on my face:
Media companies, including Time Warner Inc., 21st Century Fox Inc. and Viacom Inc., have started cutting back on commercials after years of squeezing in as many ads as possible.
The new strategy is an attempt to appeal to younger viewers, who are more accustomed to watching shows ad-free on online streaming services like Netflix Inc., and to advertisers concerned their messages are being ignored amid all the commercial clutter.
Time Warner's truTV will cut its ad load in half for prime-time original shows starting late next year, Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes said last week on an earnings call. Viacom has recently slashed commercial minutes at its networks, which include Comedy Central and MTV. Earlier this month, Fox said it will offer viewers of its shows on Hulu the option to watch a 30-second interactive ad instead of a typical 2 1/2-minute commercial break. Fox says the shorter ads, which require viewers to engage with them online, are more effective because they guarantee the audience's full attention.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday November 12 2015, @05:34PM
No viewer WANTS ads.
No viewer is going to interact with ads deliberately, especially if that interaction is forced upon them.
No viewer wants to stop in the middle of a movie or TV series they love, to have to be distracted and brought out of "suspension of disbelief", to forcibly interact with an ad.
While that's all generally correct (especially the stopping in the middle of a TV program), and a reason that CBS's new Trek-backed network will fail (they show adverts, what idiots!), there are some adverts that people do want.
John Lewis do christmas adverts every year for example
2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuz2ILq4UeA [youtube.com] - 12 million views so far
2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iccscUFY860 [youtube.com] - 25 million views
2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqWig2WARb0 [youtube.com] - 15 million views
2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N8axp9nHNU [youtube.com] - 6 million views
Not just christmas either, aside from another John Lewis advert [youtube.com] people sit through the tediousness of the superbowl to watch the adverts, people turn up to cinemas before the film to watch the trailers. It's always been like this, In the 80s people wanted to know what Giles and the other one would do next [wikipedia.org]. I have to admit that I did chuckle watching this advert [huffingtonpost.co.uk] before spectre a couple of weeks ago.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Thursday November 12 2015, @06:17PM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 12 2015, @06:29PM
You forgot Victorias Secret commercials.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday November 12 2015, @06:34PM
Some advertising can actually go with the show it is interrupting. I'm reminded of the target commercials during the last episode of Lost. The other 800 commercials were crap and i regretted watching "normal" tv : ) Should have just waited for the torrent like usual!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3gVvroDSt0 [youtube.com]
If the Trek adverts were for some equipment that would have saved a poor red-shirt then i could stand it. "Is your console always blowing up and killing your co-workers? How about a surge protector for 12.99$"
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.