TV broadcasters taking half my screen

[fixitdude]

Are you tired of it yet?

When they put those annoying little ads at the bottom or side of the screen. It started out small and now they almost take half of the screen.

They are getting more and more annoying with animation and now they add sound just to make it worse.

Others make it stay there through the whole show. Others turn it on when you need to see the bottom of the screen.

These people who do this call themselves professional, this isn't what I would call professional. A professional would know not to mess with people's entertainment.

I haven't seen anything online, why aren't people complaining?

[Giant Speck]

Anyone notice how the people on the news keep getting smaller and smaller?

I mean, they focus so much on tickers, flashing text, rotating logos and images, that it's just annoying and distracting.

[I-75]

Anyone notice how the people on the news keep getting smaller and smaller?

I mean, they focus so much on tickers, flashing text, rotating logos and images, that it's just annoying and distracting.

Seriously I stopped watching Fox News for one of these reasons.

The only place news crawls or stock tickers belong on, is a Financial News Channel...thats it.

I noticed that The Discovery Channel is getting worse with this with pop ups for "Dirty Jobs" while watching Mythbusters. National Geographic Channel is getting pretty bad in the evening.

I guess they feel that we are so dumbed down that we can't read the online TV guide to see when our favorite program will be on...lol. The online pop ups will turn away viewers in the long run.

Anyway...while on the subject (almost)... I watch "House" and "Ghost Whisperer" on regular TV and thats it. And a small handful of cable channels like "History Channel" ...and five others. I cut back my TV watching to less than half in the last two years.

FixitDude ...Glad you bought up this subject, and thanks for letting me rant too.... :-)

[lykwydchykyn]

They need adblock for tv. Now that would be a fine bit of technology.

I think this stuff is much worse on cable, though I don't watch much tv. Mostly we watch public television or we watch shows on hulu.com -- which shows FAR fewer ads than traditional tv. If you don't mind waiting a week to see the next episode, it's not bad.

Honestly I can't stand all those tickers and whatnot. I think watching that stuff is what's wrong with so many people. It's got to cause stress or ADD or something.

[lisati]

I find the voice-overs and other intrusions on the closing credits annoying - although most if the time it doesn't have to be a big deal, sometimes there's a nice bit of music that could have otherwise been enjoyed.

[Spr0k3t]

Since i don't watch TV that much (all thanks to shoddy programming like American Idull and many others), it doesn't effect me very much. What absolutely pisses me off to no end is the fact of when there is an active "Amber Alert", television stations are not required to publish the information over the top of commercial advertising. Personally that should be an FCC restriction and not just for the Amber Alert.

[mips]

TV in general has gone to the dogs. Out of all the channels there are only a few things worthwile watching.

I'm beginning to wonder about the educational value of channels like discovery, national geographic etc. Everyhting is hype & BS. Bring back David Attenborough (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough) I say :)

[mobilediesel]

They need adblock for tv. Now that would be a fine bit of technology.
Whoever invents THAT will make eleventy bajillion dollars! I'll buy two and I only have one tv!

I think this stuff is much worse on cable, though I don't watch much tv. Mostly we watch public television or we watch shows on hulu.com -- which shows FAR fewer ads than traditional tv. If you don't mind waiting a week to see the next episode, it's not bad.
Paying for cable is supposed to pay for the content. now there's so much advertising on cable, why does cable still cost money? it should be free with all the stinking ads!

Honestly I can't stand all those tickers and whatnot. I think watching that stuff is what's wrong with so many people. It's got to cause stress or ADD or something.
40 years ago a scene in a sitcom lasted at least a few minutes. Now the camera moves all over the damn place and the scenes change every 10 to 15 seconds. Almost half the shows I watch anymore are documentaries. It's the only thing that doesn't make my brain hurt.

[speedwell68]

The only channels I will watch are the ones put out by the BBC, they are 100% advert free.

[lswest]

I don't even watch TV anymore. Germany used to offer one commercial break per TV show (longer than usual though) but that you could plan for, so you didn't have to watch all that crap. Nowadays they're so frequent you have to ask yourself if you're watching ads or a TV show. And the new shows often get repetitive, so I've stopped watching any kind of TV show or movie. If I want to see a movie, I'll go to the cinema or rent it on DVD when it comes out, same with TV shows I like, I'll watch them online, or rent a DVD of the season once it's released.

I wonder if they'll stop with the advertisements once their viewer quotas drop?

[AlphaMack]

Seriously I stopped watching Fox News for one of these reasons.


Hence why I also watch CNN International instead of the US CNN. Same propaganda without the gee-whiz graphics, sound effects, and other sensationalism.

It's even getting harder for me to watch a football game on Sunday with the mind-numbing graphics that just ruin the game (arrows on the field, goal lines, etc.).

The worst offender award, however, has to go to TBS.

[mips]

It's even getting harder for me to watch a football game on Sunday with the mind-numbing graphics that just ruin the game (arrows on the field, goal lines, etc.).


I used to watch a lot of Golf but the US broadcast just annoyed the crap out of me, It's just stats, graphics & two guys talking rubbish, they don't actually show much Golf. The one year the local Nedbank challenge was done by a bunch from the US and the the local broadcaster was flooded with complaints. All they could do was apologise and fortunately the incident has not been repeated again.

[fixitdude]

I did some more research, we have all got to raise a big stink about this, if they see that enough people are upset about this it can make a big difference.

They're really worried about what we think, it's time to let them know.

There are people doing research on this that report back to the big TV networks, give them something to report!

Here's what some of the execs have said:

NBC Universal TV group chief marketing officer John Miller "There’s a dancing act going on internally with advertising trying to figure out an appropriate way not to hurt the viewing experience." Miller was careful to emphasize that the network remains mindful of not upsetting either the creative community or viewers.

Mike Benson, executive vice president of marketing for ABC Entertainment, is against any such lower-third strip mall of ads. “We don’t do them,” he said. “We are trying to remove clutter to make sure viewers have the best possible experience. If we start placing ads, we will lose the value of promotions as a navigation tool.”

"How viewers react will be key to the development of in-program ad bugs."

http://www.commercialalert.org/issues/culture/television/the-battle-for-the-lower-third