TV executives apparently don’t understand what a short attention span your average internet user has. We’re not sitting through two minutes of commercials.
Years ago I stopped watching TV and started renting movies from Blockbuster. When the economy tanked, I dropped Blockbuster (as did everyone else, which is why it went belly-up), and started watching the TV shows that were now suddenly available on the internet.
Of course, internet TV is growing to make the same mistakes that broadcast TV did. Stands to reason; they’re run by the very same people. The one I’m gonna rant about today is the commercials.
I have no problem with commercials per se. They are, after all, how I get television for free: Advertisers subsidize the entertainment by plugging their product. By all means, plug away.
But this being the internet, you’d think that they could customize their commercials a little more effectively to make sure they’re hitting potential consumers. Fr’instance: On the shows I watch, I see ads for liquor, for car insurance, for women’s cosmetics, and all sorts of things that I’m never going to buy. Advertisers for these products don’t want to waste their time on me. I think even they’d say so (unless they’re hoping to wear me down, like certain type-A salesmen who don’t take no for an answer). You’d think websites could program things so that these advertisers dodge me and go to people whom they could sell to. But it doesn’t work that way.
The other thing is that internet commercial breaks need to be short. And by “short” I mean less than 40 seconds. If you’re less than 40 seconds, I will patiently watch your plugs for whatever you’re selling, even if it’s something I’ll never buy, like that antiperspirant that prevents premature ejaculation. If you’re even 45 seconds (or you think you’re clever by not telling me how long the commercials will run) I am opening up another tab on my computer and checking my email, or checking Google+, or reading the news, or (if you’re long enough) going to the bathroom, or making tea, or making a sandwich, or anything other than watching two minutes of advertising. Some sites, particularly the Comedy Central site, will show three minutes of ads. I could cook breakfast in that time. And have.
Ads were not what drove me away from broadcast TV. Watching things on my own schedule was most of it; the low quality of a lot of TV programming was the rest. Times have changed, and now TV is much better quality, and movies are starting to suck. I’m curious to see what’ll happen to the industry once piracy tears it apart as it did to the music business. In the meanwhile, the commercials are almost over, so I’ll wrap up this post. Bye.