Author Topic: Maximum Commercial Interruption  (Read 2840 times)

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Offline markc

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Maximum Commercial Interruption
« on: July 16, 2014, 02:24:21 PM »
  I do not know about you but I am getting a little tired of TV shows being anywhere from 1 hour and 1 min long to 1 hour and 8 min long. I am thinking about writing a petition to be posted on the White House Web site to have TV companies be require to say out loud "This program is broadcast with maximum commercial interruption" just like they do with "minimum commercial interruption"
What do you think?


MDC
Now I just fast forward through all of the commercial's anyways but it seems a little out of wack that the TV companies are doing this on a regular basis.

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Offline Cory Magel

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Re: Maximum Commercial Interruption
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2014, 01:04:51 AM »
I know it sounds a little conspiracy theorist, but I suspect one of the reasons they do this is to mess up your DVR recordings.  They want you to watch it live (so they get their rating right away and can justify advertising costs) or to go to their web site to watch it ideally.
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Offline markc

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Re: Maximum Commercial Interruption
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2014, 01:33:38 AM »
I agree but I often record two shows at once ... and at times watch a third, so if they want me to not have to make difficult choices they should understand.
MDC
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
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Offline Cory Magel

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Re: Maximum Commercial Interruption
« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2014, 01:50:33 AM »
I have a 5-Tuner DVR now. :)  Course it's rare I need that many tuners...
If you have Comcast and don't have an X1-DVR they really are a decent improvement (much more than just more tuners).
- Cory Magel

Game design priority: Fun > Balance > Realism (greater than > less than).
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Offline markc

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Re: Maximum Commercial Interruption
« Reply #4 on: July 17, 2014, 11:22:01 AM »
  We are looking into both the Genie and the X1 DVR, with my brother-in-law having one and a friend another. But the recent Comcast "I will use your electricity" to power our outside network "idea" already has a strike against Comcast, even tough you can turn it off.


 Also during March Madness I do not know even if 5 turners will be enough, ;D .
MDC
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
Role Play not Roll Play.
Use a System to tell the story do not let the system play you.

Offline RandalThor

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Re: Maximum Commercial Interruption
« Reply #5 on: July 17, 2014, 12:21:04 PM »
You should watch more Disney - their shows have very short commercial breaks, and seem to stick within the normal time slots. (Plus they have a few fun shows like Mighty Med, and I admit, Good Luck Charlie.... sigh, I have a very eclectic taste in TV viewing.)

The networks have to do something to offset the "damage" done by the advent of DVR (and other recording devices), not to mention file-sharing. Personally I believe it should be handled differently, but it needs TV and internet to be even more integrated than it is currently.
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Offline Cory Magel

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Re: Maximum Commercial Interruption
« Reply #6 on: July 17, 2014, 01:20:21 PM »
  We are looking into both the Genie and the X1 DVR, with my brother-in-law having one and a friend another. But the recent Comcast "I will use your electricity" to power our outside network "idea" already has a strike against Comcast, even tough you can turn it off.
Most the crap Comcast is given is just overblown media/hater hype (I can probably dispel most the 'evil doings' according to the uneducated public like Data Limits for example)... but I think this one could be bigger publicity issue.  I have my own Router, so no using my Comcast equipment to let other people get WiFi.  I already had it (higher end gaming router - has a much better signal range too).  Even if I didn't have my own I'd be "opting out" (as you can).

I know the two issues that will be brought up the most are...
1) "You're slowing me down!".  Doubtful, because Comcast can send more bandwidth to your modem if they need to.  They can easily provide people with a 100Mbps speed and have the ability to go higher (but most people don't use anything near that).  So, as long as they monitor usage and by who that usage is coming from, you shouldn't even notice.  The question is: Can they do that?  I don't have an solid answer for that one.  It should be yes, but...?
2) "You're making my network less secure!"  They're really not.  If you are using WiFi already you already have the same potential security risks.  This is only said by people who know little to nothing about WiFi.

The complaint I can't really negate is that they are using your router to make money off non-customer WiFi usage.  From my point of view that's really the primary issue when it comes down to it.  There are valid arguments for both sides of that coin.

The questions between Satellite and Cable are fairly simple.  The package pricing, if you are comparing apples to apples (which they won't when you're talking to them) for TV is fairly close.  Within a few bucks.  But you have to answer...
1) Do you have clear line of sight for the satellite signal?
2) Do you want to be stuck in a long term contract with a high disconnect penalty?
3) Do you have to have the NFL Package? (Direct TV are the only holder of that).
4) Do you need international channels Comcast doesn't carry?
...and...
5) If you need internet satellite is just no good for that, hands down.  No question about it.  So then you're stuck with DSL if you don't get cable... and they are, generally, full of it when they tell you what speeds you'll get.  Where I live you won't get better than 1.5Mbps from DSL no matter what speed they sell you (and they will happily sell you speeds you won't get).  Comcast starts at 25Mbps (there are technically slower versions for Low Income and such, but even those run at least 3Mbps and are far cheaper than DSL).  Yes, there are customers who get Verizon Fios and Google Fiber (the real competition), but they are few and far between.  And if you're going to get cable internet odds are you'll save money bundling the TV and Internet with the cable company (unless there's something they simply can't do that Satellite can).

I agree things will have to change somewhat RandalThor.  The older the younger generations get and the faster internet becomes the more people watch their TV via the Internet.  I would say cable companies are slow to embrace this, but they are huge companies so that's kinda a given.  They will have to go fully wireless someday (eventually you'll be holding everything in your hand).  And the stock holders in companies like Comcast, as a generic group, are just behind the times.  They don't understand that Comcast, for example, is more of an internet company than a TV company anymore.  They need to get out of the 20th century frame of mind and realize technology is changing, and will quickly drastically change, from how we did it before.
- Cory Magel

Game design priority: Fun > Balance > Realism (greater than > less than).
(Channeling Companion, RMQ 1 & 2, and various Guild Companion articles author).

"The only thing I know about adults is that they are obsolete children." - Dr Seuss

Offline markc

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Re: Maximum Commercial Interruption
« Reply #7 on: July 17, 2014, 02:04:22 PM »
  I agree with all of your points with Comcast my main point is the increased electricity usage over time is not compensated for and the fact that they did not tell people directly and hide what they were doing.
  So you have to ack yourself, what are they going to try and hide next? Not that they are any worse than most of the others.


 As for sat well we are in a location that is very rural and at the time we switched to sat Comcast was being very unfriendly and I did see significant data slow downs during after school peak data times and other high data days. Sometimes the speeds were very slow, ridiculously slow in fact.
 So we switched for the direct pipe aspect ... but now capacity has increased dramatically so I am looking at all of the options again.
  But yes direct cabling is always going to be faster than through air transmission until we reach the "magic" age of signaling.


Note: Direct TV may not have Sunday Ticket all to itself for ever and their contact with the NFL is up soon IIRC. 


Also the commercials I have seen Comcast locks you into a contract as well, is that not correct? I have to get to the sites to compare.


MDC
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
Role Play not Roll Play.
Use a System to tell the story do not let the system play you.

Offline Cory Magel

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Re: Maximum Commercial Interruption
« Reply #8 on: July 17, 2014, 08:21:00 PM »
  So you have to ack yourself, what are they going to try and hide next? Not that they are any worse than most of the others.
As you stated, you think the satellite companies don't do all, if not more, of this kind of stuff?  In my experience the satellite companies are more shady.  The cable companies get so much unjustified crap already I don't know if they think they could really 'pull one over' on people - the media pounces on anything they can.  Comcast customers did get notification of how it's working (and probably an email and notice on the bill), but most of them ignore that stuff (including me).  I found out because I started asking "How the heck did Comcast create 200,000 hotspots in my state without some serious upgrading?"

I remember when Satellite was running the "Cable Pig" commercials.  Saying how the 'big evil' cable company just raised your bill.  Most of the increase was due to taxes, government fees, and maybe a little royalty increases.  So they get people to cancel cable, sign up for Satellite, put them in a 2yr agreement... then three months later, raised their prices about the same amount, but they don't actually pay the same amount in taxes and regulatory fees due to how they are setup.  So, while some of it was for the same reasons as the cable companies, some of it was 'just because they could'.  And those price raises?  They applied to the people they just singed up a few months earlier that are in a contract now. ;)

Quote
Note: Direct TV may not have Sunday Ticket all to itself for ever and their contact with the NFL is up soon IIRC.
Direct TV pays about three times more than the cable companies are willing to be in order to have exclusive rights to it.  It's happened the last two times the contract was up and it's likely to happen again.  The interesting thing, and I don't know if this one is true, I hear they actually lose money on it but it pulls in enough customers (who pay for all the other stuff) that it's worth it.  Kind of a 'lost leader item' in a store.

Quote
Also the commercials I have seen Comcast locks you into a contract as well, is that not correct? I have to get to the sites to compare.
They are starting to get into that.  Only a few of their promotions have agreements.  There are promo's with no agreement that will run a little more, ones with one year agreements that run slightly less, and ones with two year agreements that are the cheapest monthly.  Very generically speaking you're looking at paying around $15 more for no agreement, $5 more for a 1yr, and $0 more for no agreement.  But Comcast's disconnect fees are still far lower and are pro-rated.  Localized field sales reps typically have the best offers, but once in a while the web offers can match them (however the web contracted offers are typically 2yr agreements while the localized field reps contracted are typically only 1yr and are more likely to have cheaper setup costs).  Most of the contracted offers are three product offers, although there are a few two product offers with contracts.
- Cory Magel

Game design priority: Fun > Balance > Realism (greater than > less than).
(Channeling Companion, RMQ 1 & 2, and various Guild Companion articles author).

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Offline markc

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Re: Maximum Commercial Interruption
« Reply #9 on: July 17, 2014, 09:11:48 PM »
I am saying I have seen crazy stuff from both, Dish IIRC is the most abusive sat company (that I know of) but DirectTV also does crazy stuff. I have not looked too much into others besides DirectTV and Comcast as those are the best in our area, but times may have changed and I need to do some homework.


From the story I remember reading on CNN they said customers did not get notification of the new routers abilities ... but that is from memory and now they have probably changed their protocol. 


I had heard Sunday Ticket was a loss leader for D-TV but I am going to guess that the NFL is going to dramatically hike the price this time to promote their TV station and open it up to all the others out there. Also IIRC D-TV is in talks to sell themselves to AT&T and may not want to shell out big $$ before their buy out. IT just depends on the numbers and how the bis people have it wired.


I would also say they both have somewhat deceptive advertising very rarely comparing apples to apples, but that is besides the point.
MDC
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
Role Play not Roll Play.
Use a System to tell the story do not let the system play you.

Offline Cory Magel

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Re: Maximum Commercial Interruption
« Reply #10 on: July 17, 2014, 11:38:22 PM »
I am saying I have seen crazy stuff from both, Dish IIRC is the most abusive sat company (that I know of) but DirectTV also does crazy stuff. I have not looked too much into others besides DirectTV and Comcast as those are the best in our area, but times may have changed and I need to do some homework.
I think Direct TV is actually better than Dish.

Quote
From the story I remember reading on CNN they said customers did not get notification of the new routers abilities ... but that is from memory and now they have probably changed their protocol.
A couple co-workers of mine got the notification in the mail, actually even separate from their bill or any advertising junk-mail.  So I know it was sent out.  Most people that claim they were never notified about all the various stuff just aren't paying attention.  I don't get a paper bill from Comcast, so anything I get from them goes right into the garbage.  Same with emails, right into the delete folder.  So I never saw the actual notification, but I'm sure it was sent to me.  Most companies pretty much count on you not paying attention to that stuff.

Quote
I had heard Sunday Ticket was a loss leader for D-TV but I am going to guess that the NFL is going to dramatically hike the price this time to promote their TV station and open it up to all the others out there. Also IIRC D-TV is in talks to sell themselves to AT&T and may not want to shell out big $$ before their buy out. IT just depends on the numbers and how the bis people have it wired.
I hadn't heard about the Direct TV and AT&T talks.  That's interesting.
- Cory Magel

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Offline arakish

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Re: Maximum Commercial Interruption
« Reply #11 on: July 18, 2014, 07:44:30 AM »
  I do not know about you but I am getting a little tired of TV shows being anywhere from 1 hour and 1 min long to 1 hour and 8 min long. I am thinking about writing a petition to be posted on the White House Web site to have TV companies be require to say out loud "This program is broadcast with maximum commercial interruption" just like they do with "minimum commercial interruption"
What do you think?

Now you know why I do not watch TV except to use as background noise to help me focus better on what I am working on.  Don't ask me why, but I always find it easier to writings, computer work, GIS stuff, etc. when I have some background noise.

I will watch a TV series if I think it is worth watching.  If I like it, I will stop watching it and wait for the DVDs.  Yes, that screws the ratings, but as mention, I do grow tired of the three to four minutes of commercials during each break.  I can remember ST:TNG used to always have about 46 minutes of show during its 1 hour slot.  Now days, it seems as if the 1 hour shows only have about 36 minutes of show.

But, I am with you.  Create the petition and let's get passed as a law:

No network shall ever have more than 10 minutes of commercials per 1 hour of show.

To 7734 with the advertisers.  They inundate us enough with their damned junk mail and spam.  In fact, I'd love to see laws passed that completely prohibit any form of advertisement.  But that will never happen...

rmfr
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Offline markc

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Re: Maximum Commercial Interruption
« Reply #12 on: July 18, 2014, 08:27:54 AM »
Cory,
 I thought that a news program can out and said that Comcast had started sending out letters after all of the national news outlets got their teeth into the story as they were in the "extended test phase" of the project. Does that seem to jive with you?


 I am not trying to push people one way or another I am just curious about info for my self and others who ask me.
MDC
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
Role Play not Roll Play.
Use a System to tell the story do not let the system play you.

Offline Cory Magel

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Re: Maximum Commercial Interruption
« Reply #13 on: July 18, 2014, 12:31:00 PM »
Hmmm. I'm not entirely sure. It's possible they had it in 'testing' and didn't notify anyone of that in the East (this has been up and running on the East coast far longer than the West coast).

Here in Washington (State) it's only been a few weeks that Comcast has been actively promoting it... I'm not sure when the notifications were made (cause I ignore everything I get...).
- Cory Magel

Game design priority: Fun > Balance > Realism (greater than > less than).
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Offline markc

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Re: Maximum Commercial Interruption
« Reply #14 on: July 30, 2014, 12:19:50 PM »
  Doing some thinking about this and I think that it it much more likely that the networks want to have more time during specific shows to advertise than they are trying to combat DVR's. ie they can make more $ for advertising during Marvels Agents of Shield than advertising during Joe's Country High School Reunion. So by bumping up the time of various shows they can in essence show more commercials.
  Now I did notice that some shows such as Tyrant seem (to my perception) have various episode duration's, and I have noticed that the episodes varry in length from 1 hour 1 min to 1 hour 15 min.
MDC
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
Role Play not Roll Play.
Use a System to tell the story do not let the system play you.

Offline Cory Magel

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Re: Maximum Commercial Interruption
« Reply #15 on: July 30, 2014, 01:15:17 PM »
  Doing some thinking about this and I think that it it much more likely that the networks want to have more time during specific shows to advertise than they are trying to combat DVR's. ie they can make more $ for advertising during Marvels Agents of Shield than advertising during Joe's Country High School Reunion. So by bumping up the time of various shows they can in essence show more commercials.
  Now I did notice that some shows such as Tyrant seem (to my perception) have various episode duration's, and I have noticed that the episodes varry in length from 1 hour 1 min to 1 hour 15 min.
MDC
I've not thought about sticking more commercial time in popular shows and less in less popular shows.  They couldn't just stick more in them all cause that would mess up the timing of all the shows in the long run.

I'll probably never find out though. I watch 99% of my TV via the DVR. :)
- Cory Magel

Game design priority: Fun > Balance > Realism (greater than > less than).
(Channeling Companion, RMQ 1 & 2, and various Guild Companion articles author).

"The only thing I know about adults is that they are obsolete children." - Dr Seuss

Offline markc

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Re: Maximum Commercial Interruption
« Reply #16 on: July 30, 2014, 01:54:51 PM »
  Here on the west coast most of the shows are after 6 pm local time and since the networks go off air or have some dead time in the early morning hours it really does not affect them that much.
MDC
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
Role Play not Roll Play.
Use a System to tell the story do not let the system play you.