Ok, I went without television (by choice) for about two and a half years. Since moving back to the east coast, Ive picked up a new tv...mostly because the new apt I'm in has a mandatory cable package included.

Now I know this is a FWP, but has anyone else noticed that the volume of commercials...on ANY channel has gotten to be completely ridiculous? There have been numerous times in the past few weeks that I have scrolled through 70 something channels and no shit, there were commercials on at least 75% of them at the same time. Further, normal half-hour programs now last maybe 12-14 minutes of actual programming.

I understand where networks get their income and commercials are the lifeblood, blah blah blah, but FUUUUUUCK.

(yes, i know dvr, internet tv, etc can help with this but fo real?!)

/rant

11/4/2010 9:40:58 PM

omg first world problems

but seriously, I agree it totally sucks

11/4/2010 9:43:48 PM

tv sucks, get rid of it again

11/4/2010 9:50:00 PM

^trust me, if not for the girl, it'd be gone yesterday

11/4/2010 9:59:02 PM

Let her watch it and sit with her on the couch and get hammered whenever she watches TV, complaining about how you two never go out and do anything exciting.

11/4/2010 10:00:57 PM

I was a few months shy of 31 years old when I bought my first TV (had roommates with TVs, but had never actually bought my own).

I suspended my satellite TV service when I deployed to Afghanistan this time. I've been home 3.5 weeks and haven't bothered to turn it back on yet...I'll probably do it when I get back from Peru around Thanksgiving.

11/4/2010 10:20:34 PM

and another thing....what in the goddamn fuck is up with there ONLY being infomercials on between 230-530am?!

i understand that the majority of subscribers are asleep, but every fucking channel? there are plenty of people that work different shifts or are insomniacs, or whatev

11/4/2010 10:36:16 PM

but infomercial are awesome

if I had the funds, I'd buy all that shit

and if ronco sold it, I'd want TWO

[Edited on November 4, 2010 at 11:02 PM. Reason : .]

11/4/2010 10:59:33 PM

The only reason i have cable is for NESN.

11/4/2010 11:07:39 PM

Quote :

"There have been numerous times in the past few weeks that I have scrolled through 70 something channels and no shit, there were commercials on at least 75% of them at the same time. Further, normal half-hour programs now last maybe 12-14 minutes of actual programming. "

TV shows in a 30 minute block typically have a run time of about 23 minutes. Anyone who watches TV online or they download TV shows or they watch DVDs of their shows knows this. 1 hour shows have a run time of about 45 minutes. So only about 25% of the hour block is commercials. I don't really like it, but it's not as bad as you're making it out to be.

For the majority of channels having TV commercials. Often times, most stations air commercials at the same time intervals. So if you start channel surfing when the show you are watching is in commercial, you are going to see a lot of commercials, because everyone else is showing them at the same time. This is most true with 30 minute shows. With 1 hour shows, there is more variability. Some Drama shows will have a few commercials early on, then go through like 15-20 minutes of no commercials to draw you in, and then towards the climax, BAM, extra strength commercials for the final 3-5 minutes of a show.

Reality shows are a bit more even in their commercial interval, and sports programming can be more sporadic.

11/4/2010 11:18:19 PM

the only tv i watch are a couple shows on netflix before bed (family guy, futurama, king of the hill, newsradio, arrested development, weeds) and football games

every now and then i'll watch something on the history channel or something, but other than that, i have no problem with tv being mostly absent from my life

11/4/2010 11:30:14 PM

^^It feels way shorter than 23 minutes.

Maybe it's something about getting older and perceptions changing? Shows definitely seem a lot shorter. You feel like there should be more coming, and then you look down and a half hour is up, and it's just like, "WTF, I wasted a half hour for two jokes and a bunch of commercials?"

11/5/2010 12:16:06 AM

Quote :

"For the majority of channels having TV commercials. Often times, most stations air commercials at the same time intervals. So if you start channel surfing when the show you are watching is in commercial, you are going to see a lot of commercials, because everyone else is showing them at the same time."

Makes sense. No network wants you finding some other show to watch while they are on commercial, so everyone syncs up.

Lately I haven't really noticed the volume of commercials being that much louder, but I'm only on rabbit ears. Maybe it's something that happens more often on cable. Some TVs supposedly have the tech to auto-correct the volume to prevent volume jumps. Maybe I finally bought a TV where that actually works. I know I've had TVs in the past that made the claim but it certainly didn't work.

I don't watch much TV anymore, but most shows I have on DVD have a 21 to 22 minute run time. I'm noticing that most older shows, like going back to the 70s, have a run time between 25 and 26 minutes.

My FWP is football games. They'll have a kick off return sandwiched between two 3 minute commercial breaks. So 20 seconds of actual football, 6 minutes of commercials. I guess they do that to balance the time when they stay on the air for those extended drives that happen every once in a while.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like (college) football is having a steep increase in the rate of reviewed calls this year. Some calls should be so obvious that it should take no more than 5 seconds to review, but it takes at least 4 minutes every time. Why? Because they cut to commercials. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they are purposely calling reviews, or botching calls to cause reviews, just so they can increase the commercial time.
[/tinfoil hat]



[Edited on November 5, 2010 at 7:40 AM. Reason : -]

11/5/2010 7:36:12 AM

our TWC box at the beach has a sound leveling option. i don't know if the raleigh ones do too but they probably do. dish boxes do not, although it was rumored with the last os update. didn't happen.

11/5/2010 8:18:34 AM

Got rid of cable two weeks ago. I realized what we like to watch is usually downloaded from torrents and anything we watch on cable is just trash now, so out it went.

11/5/2010 8:59:15 AM

Whatever happened to predictability...

11/5/2010 9:06:57 AM

If you hate infomercials in the early morning, watch MSNBC, CNN, or C-SPAN

11/5/2010 9:10:42 AM

It it wasn't for sports I'd consider getting rid of television service. But sports aren't going anywhere so I won't be canceling service any time soon.

Any show I care about I DVR, and if it wasn't on HBO then I just fast forward through the commercials. Between that and DVDs and Netflix its not a huge deal.

11/5/2010 9:12:54 AM

You can buy TV's nowadays that modulate commercial volume for you.

FUCKIN MAGIC.

11/5/2010 9:24:14 AM

The thing I hate the most is when I want to watch football, and it's nothing but tv timeouts. Not to mention, half time is absurdly short now! It used to be long enough to toss around a football in your yard, but now it's just enough time to refill snacks and drinks, and use the bathroom. If they just had half the ads during the game, they could use halftime for all that crap.

And to all you who say "just get dvr", that isn't even an option for us. We can't even have cable in our building yet. Nuvisions is the contracted provider for the first few years this building is occupied, and they do not honor any of direct tv's pricing or sales (direct tv is the only tv service they offer to us). It would cost us upward of $1000 for setup and the first month of service if we wanted more than bunny ears. Bunch of bullshit.

[Edited on November 5, 2010 at 9:49 AM. Reason : words]

11/5/2010 9:47:11 AM

why can't you get a dvr?

11/5/2010 9:53:00 AM

^^I'm pretty sure halftime has always been 20 minutes long.

If you don't like the policies of the building then move out?

11/5/2010 10:16:03 AM

I ditched cable last year and haven't missed it. I use my tv to watch movies, do my p90x and play PS3 games. Most media content I need I can watch straight from their sites (e.g. The Rachel Maddow Show) or I can catch whatever I wanted to see when I am out somewhere. The big thing for me is my hockey and now I can watch the games live or on demand (which I couldn't do with cable) on my computer with just as good of quality as on tv. The only sucky thing is if it's a Canes game (local blackout and no FSS), on NHL Network or Versus.

11/5/2010 10:30:11 AM

Quote :

"I'm pretty sure halftime has always been 20 minutes long."

In college. NFL is 12 minutes.

I only knew that b/c I just looked it up.

11/5/2010 10:46:52 AM

^4 it seems silly to spend money on one when we only have five channels, and don't watch much tv anymore.

^^^ it's literally a block away from my husbands office, a gorgeous/spacious apartment, on the hudson river, and we can afford it. For NYC metro area, that's all much more valuable than being able to get cable. I wouldn't be pissed about the cable situation either, had the leasing agent not outright lied to us and said all buildings here have comcast. or had Nuvisions not tried to f* us sideways repeatedly before telling us what the actual costs would be.

11/5/2010 11:27:59 AM

Quote :

"It it wasn't for sports I'd consider getting rid of television service. But sports aren't going anywhere so I won't be canceling service any time soon. Any show I care about I DVR, and if it wasn't on HBO then I just fast forward through the commercials. Between that and DVDs and Netflix its not a huge deal. "

11/5/2010 12:37:35 PM

I've seriously considered dropping cable and just keeping internet.

- Netflix (Instant Watch & DVDs)
- Hulu
- adultswim.com
- southparkstudios.com
- ESPN3 on Xbox360

Really all I'd miss would be new Futurama episodes and whatever college football/basketball doesn't show up on ESPN3.

And the SuperBowl I guess. It is nice having cable for things like that, and for house guests to watch, but personally I never just channel surf.

11/5/2010 12:55:58 PM

Why would anyone pay to watch ads?

11/5/2010 4:01:47 PM

^^I haven't had cable for 2 and a half years

sometimes I miss it

11/5/2010 8:50:01 PM

^^^ espn on xbox live only works if you have certain internet providers.

I hate that we can't get that

11/6/2010 9:26:28 AM

ESPN3 will eventually work on TWC

But not if you aren't a cable subscriber

11/6/2010 9:36:14 AM

re: commercial volumes

there is no regulation on the volume of commercials. thus some are louder by design or just because

11/6/2010 9:51:41 AM

We were watching 28 Days Later on AMC last night. The commercials were ridiculously loud. It was especially funny when there was a commercial for an honest-to-god PENIS PUMP for a full minute at double the volume of the movie. Jesus.

11/6/2010 11:22:00 AM

Hulu or Netflix. I've never owned a TV ever, and ever since TV shows came out with DVDs of the seasons,
I really can't justify spending the money for the box and cable.

One concession: the bf has been thinking of getting a projector and screen for movies.

11/6/2010 11:24:52 AM

^^PENIS PUMP 4 LYFE

11/6/2010 11:59:36 AM

Quote :

"there is no regulation on the volume of commercials. thus some are louder by design or just because"

O Rly?

Senate Passes CALM Act, But House Re-Vote Needed
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/457851-Senate_Passes_CALM_Act_But_House_Re_Vote_Needed.php

11/6/2010 5:32:21 PM

That's a great use of government power and congress's time. I wonder which media company wrote that bill?

11/6/2010 6:38:22 PM

People still watch televisions?

11/6/2010 7:17:43 PM

Tv is exactly like junk food for me...if it's in the house I'll eat it, but I don't miss it at all when it's gone. And it usually takes someone else in the house to make it available

11/10/2010 3:08:50 AM

I wish more people would get mad about the commercial volume.


I have to turn up and down the volume every fucking 10 minutes in my place of business and it really bothers the customers and me. There is nothing we can do about it because the commercials are too loud and the actually shows are too soft.

11/10/2010 3:31:57 AM

They should just raise the volume levels of the TV shows, then there could be an all out volume war. I'm sure the grandparents would love this.

11/10/2010 10:53:03 AM

Quote :

"F W P"

11/10/2010 11:02:22 AM

This week's complaint:

11/11/2010 9:53:15 AM

Actually he looks like he might actually work at pizza hut. I hate it when they use gorgeous, chipper little supermodels in fast food commercials.

11/11/2010 11:27:05 AM

I wouldn't think it's legal to REQUIRE a renter to have cable.

11/11/2010 12:37:13 PM

It's probably just included in the rent. Then the apartment complex advertises "free" cable. And that commercial wouldn't be so bad if they didn't show it 5 times every 30 minutes.

[Edited on November 11, 2010 at 2:16 PM. Reason : -]

11/11/2010 2:15:38 PM

^I have no idea what commercial that is. Never seen it before in my life.

However, I'd like to say that I'm sick of all the commercials (or service messages) from The Foundation for a Better Life. Not only are they on all the fucking time, those damn songs suck and get stuck in your head

11/11/2010 2:28:54 PM