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Ads, Ads and more Ads

16K views 58 replies 26 participants last post by  freethetv 
#1 ·
Would like to run into the person or persons that created the new wave of promotional ads and commercial ads on a number of channels......CTV.....City.. You know the banners that take up a good chunk of the viewing screen to tell us what show we are watching and on what channel etc. Ads for products that block out the credits of a show etc etc. The greed of the networks is beyond belief and they still have the gall to cry poor. Once again we are at the mercy of the networks who could care less about their customers. I for one will not buy any product advertised in such a manner and hope that others will follow suit.
 
#31 · (Edited)
So in pursuit of ad-free channels, how do we identify them? I have lost all tolerance for ads in all forms (except for logos in the background of a movie and that sort of thing). So I search the guide for a movie called 'Idiocracy', and see that it happens to be upcoming on a particular channel called 'FXX HD', and so being a discriminating shopper, I begin to consider subscribing to this channel, but not if it is just another ad polluted station of course. That's the way I roll. Don't hate the player, hate the game. One in the hand is worth two in the bush. Don't eat yellow snow.

Is there some simple way to know if the channel is ad-free?

EDIT: Brought to you by Carls Junior!
 
#32 ·
If it's TVO, TCM or a premium movie channel it will be ad free. That's only during the programming. There are lots of ads between shows. PBS is mostly ad free but watch out for the pledge drives. There may be other ad free channels I missed. If you hate ads, don't even consider watching a CTV owned channel. They are the worst when it comes to advertising pollution.
 
#33 ·
ExDilbert. Yes CTV is bad but the worst is the CBC's Documentary channel. Not only are the ad breaks as long as allowed but they double stack ads and show the sort of ads that other channels would consider to bad to be shown...that is the really silly ones, the modern equivalent of those Ktel ads of the 70's. Many good programs...if you have a PVR.


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#34 ·
I like that we now have shows that are full length advertisements. I work in advertising, and there are shows that are looking for freebies or pay to have your business featured

AMAZING RACE CANADA is my favourite example of a show that is pure advertising - what a joke. CTV comes to our business every year looking to do a segment at one of our facilities and using our products. They want big $$$. If you watch the show is stacked with advertising from start to finish.

I think they had one segment last year that had 7 products (car, gas station, food at the gas station, drink at the gas station, credit card, a TV show, and electronics) all part of one competition.
 
#35 ·
Product placement has been happening since TV went public. It happens in movies as well. It's just a lot more blatant now. I'm amazed at what some talk show personalities get away with. I've seen them do segments with tables full of a single manufacturerer's products in what is supposed to be an informative piece. I don't know how much they get paid but it must be substantial. Then there are the "doctors" who flog devices and supplements that they have a major interest in. Timothy Leary almost got it right 50 years ago, except for modern network TV it should be turn off, tune out, drop the ads.

Then there is TCM, still commercial free after all these years. How do they do it when networks like CTV whinge about losing money despite their overabundance of advertising placement?
 
#37 ·
TCM's method of monetization involves selling products related to its output, such as a wine club with films attached to them, and collections of restored/remastered classic movies. Plus, also note that the channel is owned by a company who also owns a film studio (Time Warner), and that its operations are likely subsidized by all of its other properties.
 
#38 ·
Anytime you see any product on TV or in a movie, it has been placed there on purpose or for other considerations. It's not limited to scripted or reality shows - even the news everything is placed (including clothing, jewelry, etc) for a reason.

There is more advertising then most people realize on TV or in movies. In some cases, even the way things are worded, without showing or mentioning a specific product, are there to invoke a brand or category by the brand leader.

A classic example is Marlboro and the Ferrari Formula 1 team - tobacco sponsorship has been banned for over 15 years now, yet Ferrari kept colour schemes, imagery, and other invocations of Marlboro since the tobacco ban, and Marlboro is still a primary sponsor even though you will never see a Marlboro logo anywhere with the team.
 
#39 ·
I doubt that TCM's product or activity sales are anywhere close to providing enough money for it's financing. Most of TCM's revenue comes from carriage fees on US BDUs. They have secured carriage on basic cable and satellite packages in order to have enough customers and accompanying revenues for their operations. That's a model used by a number of US stations that have limited or no ads. It was originally also a requirement for carriage in Canada. Shaw was the first BDU to carry TCM and they put it in their basic package. CRTC regulations now prohibit such requirements. Bell refused to carry TCM until it was allowed to bundle it with TMN.

These days, product placement is more conspicuous by it's absence than its presence. Everything is so "branded" that an odd shaped bottle or package, or a made up or missing product logo are more noticeable than the use of a real product. An unusual car where they don't flash the maker's crest or make and model can be frustration because we all want to be able to identify it.
 
#40 ·
CityTV has been getting ridiculous with ads for the Hyundai Kona SUV and it's making me somewhat glad I don't watch that channel live. Not only is the car commercial on almost every single commercial break, but they are also now splicing the ad into little 3 second clips that also air during the same commercial blocks, and a separate station promo that also features the car. Oh, AND they naturally had to add a banner ad for it in the middle of the show I was watching too!

CTV was pulling a similar stunt with a Newfoundland commercial during the evening news, but at least that's one wasn't screaming "Newfoundland" during each tiny clip.

Grrrrrrrr

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#41 ·
I know it's a bit of old news, but when watching a recent edition of "Motoring TV", there was almost no part of the programme that was not a product placement, or an informercial.

There was a segment on a Michelin winter tire that was basically an infomercial for Michelin and Tirecraft. It's possible to do a segment that's not quite as in your face promotion.

Of course there were the usual product placements for WeatherTech and Silver Wax (in every trunk, etc). There were the segments on Stark and Silver Wax. There was a segment on the Formula E in Brooklyn, but it ended up as a Nissan commercial...

I know when they review or introduce a vehicle, it's a bit of a "commercial" for that brand/model, but it's a lot different when the promotion becomes the main part of the segment instead of a review or introduction.

I'm now able to scan this show in about 10 minutes. It wasn't always like this.

https://motoringtv.com/ (I don't think this latest programme is available online yet...)
 
#42 ·
Sounds like an infomercial disguised as a motoring show. I sometimes see information segments on talk shows that are nothing but product promotions. I've got to wonder how much the "experts" are being paid to get on shows and do those spots. A lot of home and garden shows do a lot of product placement for tools, products, and businesses as well.

Having celebrities go on talk shows to promote their latest project is a long standing tradition. I believe its often written into contracts. At least they don't spend the whole segment hawking their show or book.
 
#44 ·
search results have promoted results too, you cant get away from ads, no matter how hard you tried. people want stuff for free or low cost, ads help make that happen. Ads on the bus, bus stop, subway, ads on the boards in the scotia bank arena, ads in magazines, etc. you guessed it, this is part of society and we must get used to it. ads in a lot of our apps too, which helps pay for their cost
 
#45 ·
^^^^
The problem is they get to a point that there are so many ads, people go elsewhere. I've seen Android apps so full of ads that they're useless. There was one WiFi scanner app, which I paid for, to get the ad free version. It worked well, but then they changed the app and required users to pay again. That caused a big stink in the Google Play store comments and I believe that app is no longer available.

I understand those companies need to raise money somehow, but when they get to the point where they drive people away, they've gone too far. Take a look at the ads that are now in many TV shows. They sometimes cover up the subtitles that contain part of the dialog.
 
#46 ·
It's also about greed. Gargle and Facebork became two of the richest companies in the world in an very short time from advertising. They could have settled for less money with lower advertising rates, less intrusive consumer tracking and more socially responsible business models but they didn't because being anything less than a multi-billionaire is not acceptable to the owners. These companies could have a market value of over a trillion dollar very soon. Broadcasters are as bad and want to become the biggest richest media conglomerates in the world so they constantly keep increasing advertising. A single Android app can generate $50,000 a week for a developer from advertising and that's just a small percentage of the total revenue generated. Advertising does little for consumers that paying a small fee wouldn't cover. Except that it's no longer a small fee due to greed.

The invasion of privacy from tracked advertising hurts consumers, small businesses, democratic governments and society in general. Advertising is nothing less than brainwashing and propaganda used by big businesses and politicians (some of whom are heavily influenced and backed by big business) to sway the behaviour of consumers and voters on a large scale.
 
#47 ·
Totally agree and they wonder why people are changing their viewing habits. Not much one can do and dropping everything is not a credible option. I was raised in a country home in the late fourties without electricity, without running water, doing homework by the light of a kerosene lamp. We did have a battery operated radio. Would not want to return to that era.
 
#48 ·
You can change your viewing habits as much as you want, you are still being tracked, unless you are using OTA tv without a Nielsen box.

60 Minutes had a piece on "Social Responsibility Scores" that are being implemented in China using face recognition software, this is the next level of intrusive tech. One of the funniest things in that piece was a Chinese engineer gleefully telling Scott Pelly how the technology they've developed was "just like that episode from Black Mirror", Pelly looked shocked and said something to the effect "that episode was meant to show the dystopian future and a total lack of privacy". The Chinese engineer did a double take, frowned and then said "of course" he really didn't get it, but considering the lack of freedoms in his country you can't really blame him.

I don't use Facebook, Twitter etc, but am well aware that just using the internet opens you up to all kinds of targeting, that's a price I'm willing to pay.
 
#49 ·
the solution my friend, can not be done by just one company or individual, there needs to be a combination of several companies who jointly can come up with a add free or reduced add standard to take on the industry as a whole, the more people who are in on this partnership and can battle and fight the intrusiveness of overwhelming ads, and can put a smile on consumers faces by showing them results that it works, will eventually succeed in the marketplace.
 
#50 ·
Guess very few will admit watching the Y & R on Global but this new method of ad placement takes the cake. Ads are placed in a slightly off-centre box for various products while the program content is on. This is in addition to ads scrolling across the lower portion of the screen from time to time. Really annoying and in my mind the last straw for extra revenue. Just a another nail in the commercial tv industry. Sorry that times are hard but lets not kill it off so quickly.
 
#51 ·
I was watching Oprah - just kidding :) I was watching Alone on the History channel and a thing slid out from the right about some Global app and covered some subtitles. This crap happens frequently. The subtitles are information about what is going on or things hard to understand. Something like "he could die unless ...(covered up).

I will not buy the product but I might buy the competition. And I might also give the offender a 1 star rating somewhere.
 
#54 ·
I had this happen a few times. But this happened on a simsub program. So i complained to the CRTC website. The first email from them said that it wasn't an issue for them. I replied with "their" website info that mentions it was. Something like, if a network simsub an program and it affect the quality of the show" In one case it they were speaking Russin and the other they speaking Chinese and ads covered the subtitles.

In each case I got an email from the network "apologizing " and that it was a mistake.

All this to mention that even if it doesn't change anything now, if people complain to the CRTC, it might change something in the future.
 
#53 ·
Yup, I despise advertising and do everything I can to avoid it, including an adblocker on the internet and pvr everything I want to watch to fast forward thru the commercials. Unfortunately all television has become now is a tool to make money thru advertising revenue, programming means nothing, as shown by the 4 major US networks whose programming is 90% crap.
 
#55 · (Edited)
The CRTC regulations also mention that the picture and audio resolution must not be degraded and the programming must be 95% complete. Unfortunately, there is no mention of how that is to be measured. By one measure, the broadcaster could cut off the last 2 minutes of every hour long show and still meet the regulations. I've seen broadcasters cut out segments of shows and replace them with commercials. There is one BDU that gets the broadcaster to downgrade the picture before submitting it. There have been thousands of instances where the picture and sound have been and continue to be significantly degraded due to processing by BDUs but I only know of one instance where the CRTC made a significant ruling regarding simsubs due to picture or sound quality.

In the past few years, the CRTC seems to have decided not need to deal with consumer complaints and that any they receive can be published, including the personal information of people who file complaints, without permission. According to the CRTC, the best option is to file a compliant with the broadcaster or a broadcaster run voluntary agency. The issues there is that broadcaster compliance is strictly voluntary and the issues do not get filed in the CRTC database. That means that the CRTC has no record of these complaints and the CRTC may be unaware of egregious or repeated issues that are not addressed.
 
#56 ·
The CRTC works for the industry and not for Canadians. As soon as you understand that, you'll get it when it comes to how they handle complaints.

Really, the ads are so obnoxious now that I barely watch TV at all. That's an industry ripe for dying like the dinosaur that it is.
 
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