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Notice more TV ads lately? You're not imagining it.
The amount of commercial time on cable TV keeps increasing as networks try to make up for shrinking audiences by stuffing more ads into every hour of television. That's despite years of promises to cut back on ads.
Last quarter, commercial time rose 1%, according to Michael Nathanson, an analyst at MoffettNathanson LLC. After declining in 2017, the volume of ads increased every quarter last year and expanded again in the first half of 2019, he said. Fox was the only major cable network group to lower its ads last quarter, cutting them by 2%, Nathanson said.
As TV viewership declines and more consumers jump to streaming services like Netflix, media companies have only a couple of options to generate the advertising revenue that Wall Street expects: They can raise prices, run more commercials or do a little of both.
"Look at the decline in ratings," Nathanson said. "Everyone's got pressure to make their quarterly numbers. Long-term, it's a very bad decision, but you don't want to miss your numbers and have your stock go down."
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday August 02 2019, @10:26PM (5 children)
... And inflation happens, too.
But the whole proposition of raising prices doesn't get much traction, either. Ads are bought on the premise of X many eyes watching the program. If X is shrinking then it is very hard to justify charging more for that. It is easier to pack in more ads per hour. Which TFA basically explains.
That said, I'm surprised that the highest average is only about 14 minutes per hour. That said, it must be just commercials and not other breaks like promo spots because this site [waynesthisandthat.com] seems more like reality to me, suggesting that it is much closer to 32% and not 25% in overall not-on-program time.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @02:10AM
Last week I watched a movie on TV. The last half was 10 minutes of move then 5 minutes of adverts. I can't do the math but it was basically unwatchable and obnoxious. You need at least 3 things on at the same time so you can flick between them. That is the only useful role of baseball on TV, I believe.
(Score: 3, Informative) by kazzie on Saturday August 03 2019, @06:18AM (1 child)
Here in the UK, the legal cap [ofcom.org.uk] is an average of 7 minutes an hour for (commercial) public service broadcasters, or 9 minutes an hour for all the other broadcasters.
I'm convinced this average is set so low because of the existence of the BBC, which (as a non-commercial broadcaster) has no adverts, only trails.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday August 05 2019, @03:36PM
Thank you! Very interesting to know and so very good to keep in mind that not everyplace in the world follows the dictates of what occurs in the United States. Refreshing and hope generating...
This sig for rent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @07:19AM (1 child)
look at show length (you can do that on netflix).
big bang theory episodes are 22 mins. same as most sitcoms from today. so 44 mins of "useful" programming an hour, minus the 4 mins initial song/credits.
I guess it's worse with sports and news though.
extra comment: star trek original series ~50 mins episode length. star trek next generation ~45 mins episode length.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday August 05 2019, @03:39PM
Sure, but today those older programs, in syndication, are either given an extra half-hour in broadcast (wow!) and/or they snip and cut away absolutely anything that is not essential to the plot as well as re-editing all the timings.
Nothing sucks more than remembering the dialogue from a particular episode (M*A*S*H is the prime example, but I've seen it as recently in newer series Doctor Who as well) where I remember the dialogue and am playing it ahead in my mind a little bit and all ready to laugh at a particular line I recall coming up....... and they jump cut into the next scene. Arrrgh!
This sig for rent.