Submitted by Ok_Marionberry_9932 t3_1011tt7 in television
So I watch about 30 minutes of TV last night to see the ball fall, the first time in a year. A couple of songs and the BLAH BLAH BLAH of several loud and obnoxious commercials that seemed direct to 10 year olds. There was probably more commercial than entertainment. How any one watches commercial TV anymore is beyond me.
It’s crazy to think that a whole generation or two will never embrace commercial TV and will stick to streaming. Young people physically can’t watch a show on a fixed schedule with adverts every 10 minutes compared to just picking an episode/film on streaming.
I guess companies will try and shift their ads onto streaming in the next decade.
They're pretty much starting to do that already with reduced cost ad supported subscriptions.
I (a US citizen) traveled around the world for a year. I remember the first time back in the US with a tv screaming "buy this shit!" at me.
My tolerance for our tv & radio ads has ever since been zero. It creeps me out to think of everyone out there getting willfully blasted with this tripe 24/7.
Same reason why people listen to commercial radio; they use it as wallpaper for their daily tedium.
I wholeheartedly agree with this. I turn on AM radio When I drive so that my brain can tune out background noise and focus on driving. Same thing with television: I use it as talking wallpaper so that my brain has something to tune out and I can focus on what I need to do.
>How any one watches commercial TV anymore is beyond me.
one way is DVR (fast forward through commercials)
another way is when I have something to do on commercials (food, bathroom)
But just muting the TV during commercials isn't too bad. Even when streaming movies I have to keep the remote in my hand to micromanage the volume anyway. It's actually easier to manage the volume when watching satellite by comparison if I'm just muting commercials.
Just turn on a compressor instead of micromanaging the volume. We solved this problem over 70 years ago. Might be called "night mode" or "dynamic range" or "adaptive volume" or "normalization" on your TV.
Plus one for compression. Most sophisticated televisions offer it via Menu; if you use components for audio delivery, a standalone compressor smooths out all those jarring inequalities in sound.
BBC has always been a offender: every scene requires audio adjustment.
> one way is DVR (fast forward through commercials)
> another way is when I have something to do on commercials (food, bathroom)
Why bother? Just watch your content another way.
Because it's not live or same day.
Torrents are usually up the same night for the shows I watch ¯\(ツ)/¯
Why cares though?
Plus, tons of streamed options are also live.
I prefer traditional TV
What does that even mean?
If you can stream the channel live on your TV, how is that any different?
I liked watching each new episode of Better Call Saul as it aired. That way I could keep up with the discussion on social media when other were watching it and avoid spoilers. I heard a bunch of complaints about AMC+ so I'm glad I didn't have to deal with that.
Same situation with live sports. I'm not sure what packages exist to watch game in real time, but watching live in satellite works fine for me.
It's like browsing the internet without an adblocker.
When people used to watch TV as a family, a commercial break would be a good point to talk about whats happened so far and have a quick conversation.
It also provided an opportunity to use the washroom, get snacks etc.
Yes, you can pause a stream to do all of that. But there's a psychological difference between making a choice to stop the action or taking advantage of when it's done for you.
I agree. Heck, my family still does this. We don’t like streaming services because our internet’s too slow to for it. Plus, baking competitions are better live.
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At least TV is built with commercials in mind. I'm pretty sure TV shows have scripts with basically -insert ad break here- type of memo, so the transition isn't jarring to the narrative.
If you're ever in a situation where you're watching Youtube without an ad blocker, you'll be watching a video, then suddenly you're hit with an ad mid-sentence. And it's honestly a bit frustrating. And the ads are always so loud.
Watching Twitch without an ad blocker is a non-starter for me too (to the point I've almost stopped watching except tournaments). Switching streams, ad. Random time during the stream, ad. Ad break, 7 ads. And Twitch is constantly trying to get around ad blockers which doesn't help.
I find TV ads to be somewhere on the lower end of annoying compared to what's out there. I mean, try to scroll through a website without ad blockers.. it's horrendous.
I hate that every cartoon/comedy is loud and I can't fall asleep to it. I used to do Futurama but now I can't. And even as quiet as the Office is there's still that bangin ass theme song and Michael and Dwight randomly yelling
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I can't stand the format of building a show around commercial breaks. Few minutes of sorry, pause, minutes of commercial, back to a few minutes of story, repeat.
Especially the big 3 networks.
Linear tv? With ads? No thanks.
i had YouTube TV which has live tv stations. was ok at $50 a month , but now $65 a month. im using netflix, HBO Max, paramount + , cheap Hulu and disney. these have everything except for the local news....
Since returning back to watching sports entertainment more often, I'm now on a quest to invent some sort of technology or service that can remove/mitigate commercials from the viewing experience. I don't understand how in 2023 western society has failed to come up with some sort of classification system that identifies egregiously running ads as brainwashing, but that's precisely what it is in many cases. I feel like I'm being attacked when watching commercial TV.
Y’all are just spoiled by streaming
I only ever watch regular tv while making my coffee in the morning, and it seems like most of the time I turn it on, it's a fucking commercial. It is truly obnoxious. 90 seconds of straight commercials, 5 minutes of regular programming, another 90 seconds of commercials. I swear that's not even much of an exaggeration.
The only reason I hang on to cable is for live sports.
Yeah Commercial Network TV is just brutal to watch.
not everything that is on free tv is shit, and I'd sooner watch a good show with ads than a garbage ass one, of which streaming companies have aplenty, with no interruptions. Yes, ads are annoying, but I ain't bovvered much
GaryC357 t1_j2l5obi wrote
Agree 100%. I stopped watching commercial TV a couple of years ago. Most of it's trash anyway. If something interesting does come on it gets canceled, so why bother.