Another Patent For Pissing Off TV Viewers
from the just-what-people-wanted dept
For all the stories about how TV execs are freaking out about people skipping TV commercials thanks to their TiVos, what’s been more interesting is to see the technology scramble to deal with this. Earlier this year, we pointed to Phillips’ patent on banning fast forwarding (or channel surfing) and now Engadget points out that a guy in the UK has patented a system for showing ads even as you fast forward. Never mind the fact that people have talked about such things for years (raising the ever popular “isn’t that obvious?” question), but it will be interesting to see if networks follow through with this. It’s already been shown that TV viewers tend to remember commercials better, even if they fast forward through them — but it also seems likely to annoy people if they feel that the networks and advertisers are trying to shove more ads in their face when they’re obviously trying to get around them. Instead of looking for ways to annoy more people, why not focus on making advertising that doesn’t annoy?
Comments on “Another Patent For Pissing Off TV Viewers”
How about find out what speed tivo fast forwards and have a subliminal picture that only really shows at the fast forward, Some kinda static image or maybe just the logo name. It should work. but it would only work at that fast speed?
Re: ad skipping
That technology already exists its called pause time and patents for pause time content have been awarded…
Ads
All advertising is composed of lies. We would be better off if they changed their model to tell the truth, to quit with the overhyped Billy Mays types, to replace the glitz with honesty. It’s obvious that if people really felt commercials were worth wile they’d watch them rather than find ways to bypass them.
Re: Ads
Ron, I couldn’t agree more. I don’t believe that marketing helps our society as a whole in most cases.
I’m going to buy toothpaste no matter what, why do I need to fund Colgates marketing costs or any of their competators. It pisses me off that we are treated like idiots, why am I going to by T-Mobile service just because Catherine Zeda Jones is on the commercial? How much do these companies spend in marketing? You better believe that those costs are passed down to consumers.
But with that said I must realize that the majority of Americans do fall for these gimics, so we must be as stupid as we’re treated otherwise these marketing costs couldn’t be allowed. I guess it’s easier to be told what to buy rather than making up your own mind. I guess Pepsi must be better than Coke because I see more Pepsi commericals.
Re: Re: Ads
I won’t buy T-Mobile just because she’s on the ad…but I WILL watch that add. She’s real easy on the eyes fellas.
Re: Re: Re: Ads
I won’t buy T-Mobile just because Catherine Zeta Jones is on the ad…but I WILL watch that add. She’s real easy on the eyes fellas.
Re: Re: Ads
The sad truth of advertising is that advertising works. Not always in the way we believe it works, but as a form of remembered fondness when we see the product on the shelves. Advertising also works as a, “Hey! If you looking for this product, come down to XXXX and buy it, because our prices are cheapest.”
The other sad truth is that the company I work for, is not advertising. This means we only see the same people we always see when they need a product. We need new faces to grow business, and advertising is the only way to bring new customers in the store.
wow...
My whole reason behind Tivo is watching my show anytime I want with NO COMMERCIALS (im sure every1 will say the same)… If you fast forward at 4X, you can still see the commercials and what the basic Idea is about. 15X, same thing. If you watch the same channel all day, chances are they rerun the same commercials. I know all the stupid commercials on USA TNT ABC CBS. I wonder how long it takes this idea to hit the US… Damn it…
TV Commercials
i would like to add that more commercials are being shown and at a higher volume/amplitude than ever before. My solution which my wife and I tested this summer during the reruns was to sign on with Netfix and have one movie at a time. We got hooked and now have three. So we enjoy season shows like 21 a few years later – my schedule would never let me see the whole season anyway. Now I watch what I want, wen I want with no commercials – I can take a phone call or do what ever and return. I know you TiVo people could do that but you still had to fast forward the commercials. I think I might just get rid of my DISH!
Bill in Phoenix
Commercials
You can get smart DVR’s for pc’s that scan for and predelete commercials from recordings.
More and more stations are now relying on annoying promos that pop up and bounce around the screen disrupting regular programming. My concern would be that this is going to spread from advertising other shows on the network to advertising 3rd party products. As marketing execs feel the squeeze from DVRs they’re going to feel more and more inclined to do this.
It's not just TV rant
The last movie I went to see ran trailers
and advertising before the start of the
movie.
I paid to see this?
The last DVD I bought had trailers at
the begining as well.
They should place the trailers at the END
of the movie (which they used to do hence
the name) so I can leave or turn off the player
if I’m not interested in viewing them.
Why do I have to FF though this crap- I’ve
already paid for the product. It’s Simple,
they’re greedy bastards who treat their
customers like cattle.
TV ads, telemarketers, trailers on purchased
video… I’m sick of it. Worst of all most of the
advertising is unimaginative, insulting, annoying
or a combination of all three.
Yeah, I’ll remember an ad that irritates me and
I’ll be sure to purchase a competitor’s product.
Stick that in your Nielsen ratings.
annoying ads
unfortunately studies show that the more annoying the ad, generally the more it will be remembered, and talked about etc..
solution – download all the tv shows you watch from bit torrent, mind you, I wonder how long it’ll be untill torrent sites are putting advertising in their torrents to generate revenue..
Re: annoying ads
Even the ads that are actually well done become annoying simply due to the fact that during a 30 min sitcom, 13 mins is going to be devoted to commercials, and you will likely see most of the same ads 2 or 3 times within that timeframe.
Anything will become annoying after a while.
Does anyone really buy something because they seen it on TV?
Wasn’t that the point of cable in the first place, premium price for no commericals
Re: Re:
“Wasn’t that the point of cable in the first place, premium price for no commericals”
That was the bait….
Alternate View
I agree commercials can be annoying, but I have realized something as a Sat Radio listener. If there were no ads you may not see or hear a product you need. I find this mostly with local ads. A local Ag product I may not know about or advertising for an event that is going to be local. When I do listen to regular radio after weeks of SAT, I realize I have actuall missed some stuff. Commercials can be good.
Non-Paid programming or “Free TV” makes their money from ads. No matter how much it annoys you, it will be there. Only two things can happen if technology allows everyone not to watch Commercials. One would be product placement, which is more annoying to me. Nothing worse that a good show (24) showing strange shots and dialoge just so you can see it is a Ford, “We would have never caught the terrorist if it were not for the 4.6 liter V8 turbo in my 2006 Ford Tempo.” Two, CBS etc. will become a pay channel and then probably still advertise.
I know tech dirt and its readers probably want to find a new business model where nobody has to pay for anything and the network does not need to generate any revenue to make money.
Well, I do not watch any commercial channel except occasionally Fox News. Strictly TCM and premium movie channels which I pay thru the nose for.
Showtime put one of those little animations on the bottom of Notting Hill, last week. I expect to cancel ALL my premium channels in a few weeks. I’ll keep digital plus, for TCM, and rely on my Escient package (up to 1,200 discs online) for movies. I love to watch movies over and over, anyway, so I’m building up my collection.
No FFWD with some DVRs
I don’t understand why Tivo has a fast-forward option to jump through commercials, when it’s easier programmatically to just JUMP forward. My MythTV box jumps forward 30 seconds (programmable) every time I hit the right arrow, and ten seconds back (programmable) when I hit the left arrow. I hop through ads like a madman, on those rare occasions when I watch something soon enough after it’s recorded that the machine hasn’t just prebuilt “commercial skip zones” for me.
The vast majority of the time, I don’t see a single commercial, not one frame of it. I wonder what patent will end up coming out to cover that.
Re: No FFWD with some DVRs
More likely a law will end up coming out labeling things like MythTV as “circumvention devices” and outlawing them.
Ads
Marketing is not meant to help our society as a whole, and it has never claimed too…
In your toothpaste example, true, everyone is going to buy toothpaste. Exactly why the advertising budgets are so big for those type of products. Everyday products have no real difference, other than maybe taste, texture, color, flavor etc. therefore they must advertise immensely to get there name out to the public so that the consumers will no the products name when they go to the store.
Honestly when do people buy a product they have never heard of before? or buy things from a company whose name they have never seen? without advertising not many products would succeed because word of mouth just doesnt travel as far these days.
Re: Ads
“Marketing is not meant to help our society as a whole, and it has never claimed too…”
You have to draw a distinction between marketing and advertising. Marketing is all about would be sellers being able to bring their product to the attention of potential customers. How potential buyers and sellers can find each other efficiently is fundamental to all market economies.
Re: Ads
Word of mouth actually travels FASTER these days… It’s called the internet. I find it hard to believe someone who posts comments online doesn’t understand this concept. Viral marketing is the wave of the future. Getting consumers to forward advertising to their friends is the best way to get people watching them.
TV ads : a solution
I have this solution which cost nothing at all
and is quite simple : Don’t look at the TV!
I have done this for years and it is great, take
the time to do somtheing else like reading a book
surfing on the net or listening to music…
I just have to say I LOATHE tv stations putting their symbol on the tv screen while I am watching their channel.
There are a few that do a good job of it, making it see-through or not through the entire program, but it can still be quite annoying. Several times it has obliterated a portion of the screen I want/need to see.
Also: stop showing me commercials for the same friggin thing 3 times in 30minutes. I will boycott your product!
2 Also: stop showing me commercials for programs that I’m currently watching! If I’m watching Mythbusters, I don’t need to see a commercial about Mythbusters during the friggin Mythbusters marathon!!!
Continuation
I feel that this is one of those debates that are going to keep going and going, similar to ‘which came first – the chicken or the egg?’.
It is obvious that free-to-air television is going to continue advertising third-party products – unless people begin making donations to free-to-air stations to keep them running, it is a necessity. Of coarse, the exorbitant cost of some of the programs (and by extension, the actors within them) mean that costs rise and therefore more advertisement contracts need to be signed.
Yet, the converse side of the story is that the more advertisements that are shown on a single station, the less people are likely to watch that station (and the advertisements on it), the less people will buy the advertising companies products, and the less advertisements can be afforded.
It is, however, almost a breach of fair-trade practice that commercial (or premium/paid-for) television stations, which use the implication (and in the earlier years, promise) of few or no advertisements if you pay for their service, should now be forcing advertisements into the faces of their clients. It would stand to reason that, as these companies are getting their revenue from their client-base, they would not need to seek capitol from third-party companies. But that is the nature of business – to gain as much money (and, also by extension, power) as possible.
This can continue indefinately, each person complaining to each other about how unfair it is that commercial enterprise is doing what it does – making profit at the expense of the people – but it will do nothing, except to increase everyone’s individual ill-regard for these practices.
An old saying is that the empty can rattles the most. Until people are prepared to stand up for what they believe in, to fight for the ideals that they so passionately describe as they complain to each other in hushed tones or on anonymous message boards on the Internet, it will remain this way; and the grumbling will continue.
To quote a recent movie, “The government should fear its people, not the people fear its government”. Government and commercial enterprise are supposed to provide a service for the people, with the people at the top of the food chain, but the people have let this lapse, and it will remain this way until they realise this.
Re: Continuation
— An old saying is that the empty can rattles the most. Until people are prepared to stand up for what they believe in, to fight for the ideals that they so passionately describe as they complain to each other in hushed tones or on anonymous message boards on the Internet, it will remain this way; and the grumbling will continue. —
Filesharing, bit torrent, P2P, TIVO, pirating and the like are all examples of people standing up for what they believe in.
It isn’t realistic to see people do without as a protest nor is it reasonable to expect people to take up their arms and march to Madison Avenue (or their local cable/Sat provider).
People express their displeasure by not sending money to those who they are displeased with.
Movie theater attendance is down. Prices for snacks are up as is pre movie advertising.
TV shows are approaching 50% commericals and people are using TIVO andother means of circumventing the ads and freeing up their time for things they wish.
Music is hideously overpriced given that the standard methodology in releasing a CD is to have one or two radio worthy tracks and the rest crap filler. So, there is now a free and pay market to download just what one wants.
I would say the revolution is well underway and there is good money in providing people with ways to avoid what annoys them.
Re: Re: Continuation
Actually this year has seen an increase of Movie theater ticket sales for nearly each weekend compared to the same weekend last year. Last year experienced this same trend. Movie theaters have also expanded by building more theaters that include more screens. A local theater group called Megaplex theaters just built a new theater wtih 10 screens featuring digital projectors and all 20 theaters feature digital sound sound compatible with both THX and Dolby Digital. The evening price is only $7.50 a ticket, and it is only $5.25 or $5.50 before 6 p.m. You have not experienced a movie until you see it on a digital projector. I love going to the theater!!!
Re: Re: Continuation
@ Anonymous Coward
Actually this year has seen an increase of Movie theater ticket sales for nearly each weekend compared to the same weekend last year. Last year experienced this same trend. Movie theaters have also expanded by building more theaters that include more screens. A local theater group called Megaplex theaters just built a new theater wtih 10 screens featuring digital projectors and all 20 theaters feature digital sound sound compatible with both THX and Dolby Digital. The evening price is only $7.50 a ticket, and it is only $5.25 or $5.50 before 6 p.m. You have not experienced a movie until you see it on a digital projector. I love going to the theater!!!
Re: Re: Continuation
@ Anonymous Coward
“Movie theater attendance is down. Prices for snacks are up as is pre movie advertising”
Actually this year has seen an increase of Movie theater ticket sales for nearly each weekend compared to the same weekend last year. Last year experienced this same trend. Movie theaters have also expanded by building more theaters that include more screens. A local theater group called Megaplex theaters just built a new theater wtih 10 screens featuring digital projectors and all 20 theaters feature digital sound sound compatible with both THX and Dolby Digital. The evening price is only $7.50 a ticket, and it is only $5.25 or $5.50 before 6 p.m. You have not experienced a movie until you see it on a digital projector. I love going to the theater!!!
Re: Continuation
Whoa…I am 16 y. old… I always thought that the people was supposed to fear the government…not the other way around…man, that will change my life…wow.
Re: Re: Continuation
lay off the dope,son
How About...
How about simply not watching TV because it sucks?
Re: How About...
I couldn’t agree more. KILL YOUR TV!!!!
farewell TiVo, good bye TV
The DAY this technology is background-downloaded into my TiVo, I wil turn it off and throw it away, along with the TV. For the $50 a month I pay to watch TV, I shouldn’t even have to see commercials at all, much less fast-forward through them. For the same amount of cash each month, I could buy and read several good quality books or download the same programs commercial-free from the internet.
I think cable companies and satellite companies (and in some markets telephone companies) should just go to a pay per view model.
Charge me a small amount per show and have no ads.
If I can watch everything I want and have my monthly bill be the same or less, I will gladly sign up.
If not for the DRM, ITunes and the like would be great. At 99 cents per song that isn’t a savings over the per song price for a CD, but since I don’t normally want more than 1 or 2 songs from a CD I get all I want for $1-2 instead of $12-15. Works for me.
Re: Re:
Charge me a small amount per show and have no ads.
If I can watch everything I want and have my monthly bill be the same or less, I will gladly sign up.
The problem with that solution is that a teir service would be created. And we all know the tier that has shows with no ads would cost an arm and leg. This would also open the door to outlawing methods of skipping ads under the premise of “If you dont want ads then buy the proper service.” And with that door open networks would flood channels with so many ads that tv shows will become even shorter.
Side note: Most 30min shows are ususally 20min of show and 10min of ads. Why is it that as shows get shorter ( to make room for more ads ) actors/actresses want more money for them?
RE: Anonymous Coward
Firstly, I must say it is enlightening to see a young person reading topics that are as politically, ethicly and philosophically heavy as this. I am proud, ‘somerandomguy’, that my comment has changed your opinion of the world, and I hope that you continue reading discussions such as this for a long time to come.
Perhaps it would be a more acceptable model for companies such as you listed to adopt a pay-per-view system, but then, who is to decide how much to charge for each item? As an example, with bulk production, items can be made, imported, transported and stocked for ~$0.80, yet retail for $2.00! How can this be seen as just?
Yes, filesharing, peer-to-peer and other similar concepts are examples of people taking action against such things, but they are so frought with danger – from viruses, spyware, copyright infringement, and even just the nature of some content that is added to those systems – that many people are afraid to use it!
Just last night, a friend of mine asked me to try and find some “Sailor Moon” episodes – a Japanese anime-style cartoon for children. When I ran the search, of approximately 15 files found, three quarters of them were pornographic!
Yes, advertisements are needed to promote even the existence of a company or its products/services, but where is the line drawn? Who determines the equilibrium between supporting a free service by commercial third-party advertisements, and making a profit at the expense of the public?
don’t watch tv, read a book
BLIP VERTS……
In the 1985 film Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future and the subsequent 1987 science fiction television show Max Headroom, blipverts were a new high-intensity television commercial which had the consequence of overloading the nervous systems of certain viewers, causing their bodies to explode. In the original story, reporter Edison Carter exposed Network 23’s efforts to create and broadcast them in his investigative affairs segment, “What I Wanna Know
Master Lock, which had already made the image of a padlock shot by a sharpshooter into a lasting advertising image with their ad in the Super Bowl in 1974, incorporated that video image, along with its logo, in a one-second-long television commercial in 1998.[1] It is not believed to have caused anyone to explode.
Some of the advertisers are embrasing this tech
GE ran a few ads a while back called 30sec theater, where if you had A DVR, you could pause the commercial and go frame by frame and see a different ad, they were smart and funny, obviously that Marketing company gets it, like many have said before, learn to adapt, I know we backed it up like 3 times, it was really good, IE they got my attention, and made me look for the ad, isnt that they best kinda of marketing, they should all get on the band wagon, and learn to target all those people fast-forwarding, and pausing recorded television. at least as the Market segment of DVR house holds gets larger.
If you can’t fast forward through the ads then many people will not buy the product because it is not better than say your average vhs. I can fast forward on vhs through the commercials. Who will pay an outrageous amount for a product per month and not have a certain level of control over it? I am not. It may be the end of Tivo if they implement this into their product. I am not going to sit through a bunch of ads for erectile dysfunction while I sit with my young grand children. neither am I going to allow the advertisers to force me to watch ads that push products on young children. I will continue to watch my dvd movies as long as someone doesn’t get the idea to push ads on me there too. I do not have Tivo but I was under the impression the people that have this product pay a premium each month in order to have the service? If so I would be outraged if this was added to the service. This is clearly forcing products down our throats. We already get enough of the prescription ads during the week to last us our lifetimes.
another way to bypass commercials
Let’s now forget, an average DVD recorder that handles the DVD-RAM format can record and play at the same time. So what I do is start recording the show, do something else (like read Techdirt) for 30 minutes, then press play. This creates a half hour buffer and when the breaks come, I hit the 30 second skip button a few times (No FF use for me) and the spot break is totally not seen.
As far as promos on the front of DVD’s goes, as soon as the first one arrives that cannot skip the promos ends up in my house, it will get returned for refund since it won’t play properly. I’ve pondered billing the releasing studio for air-time in my house as an alternative to returning the DVD to the store for a refund. Sure, I’ll watch your promos, but it will cost you a buck each view. “creating a DVD that obligates me to watch commercials constitutes an agreement to pay for such viewing time in my residence”
and remember, tv is a multimedia technology, there’s always the mute button. Billy Mays never airs in my home. That guy is rude as heck.
L
Wow just think of the money they will be making off of the people too stupid to care that they paid big bucks already for the Tivo service, then paid big bucks for the cable/satellite TV, big bucks for that brand spanking new Tivo box they will either rent like a dumb fool or purchase. Gosh! Now they get to pay out the butt watching crappy commercials. How many commercials? Well that depends on how many ignorant customers fall for it. Good going advertisers! We get to weed out the dummies when we go to visit their residences. Thanks for the heads up!
PEOPLE HAVE LIVED IN THE PAST WITHOUT ADVERTISING AND THEY DIDNT SEEM TO HAVE ANY PROBLEM WITH OUT IT. STOP ARGUING IN THEIR FAVORS FUCK ALL OF YOU CUNTS
Bill Sez:
Frankly, I agree with “dfdfdfdfdfdf”‘s intemperate little comment… To quote the mighty Bill Hicks:
“By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself. Just a little thought, I’m just trying to plant seeds, maybe one day they’ll take root, I don’t know. You do what you can. Kill yourself. Seriously though, if you are, do. Uhhhh, no really, there’s no rationalization for what you do and you’re Satan’s little helper, okay? Kill yourselves, seriously. You’re the ruiner of all things good. Seriously. This is not a joke. You’re thinking “There’s gonna be a joke comin’, heheh-” there’s no fucking joke coming. You are Satan’s spawn, filling the world with violent garbage, you are fucked and you are fucking us, kill yourself. It’s the only way to save your fuckin’ soul. Kill yourself. Planting seeds. I know all the marketing people are going “He’s doin a joke-” there’s no joke here whatsoever. Suck a tailpipe, fuckin’ hang yourself, borrow a gun from an NRA friend, I don’t care how you do it, rid the world of your evil fuckin’ machinations. Whatever, you know what I mean. I know what all the marketing people are thinking right now too: “Oh, he’s going for that anti-marketing dollar, that’s a good market, he’s very smart.” I am not doin’ that, you fuckin evil scumbags. “Ohh, you know what Bill’s doin now, he’s going for that righteous indignation dollar, that’s a big dollar. Lot of people are feeling that indignation – we’ve done research. Huge market, he’s doing a good thing.” Goddamnit I’m not doing that, you scumbags. QUIT PUTTING A GODDAMNED DOLLAR SIGN ON EVERYTHING ON THIS FUCKIN’ PLANET.”
Ay-men to that.