Why Oh Why Ad breaks?

forestfruits

Why is it that everything seems to go on break at the same time. Watching something, it goes on break, naturally enough I tend to flick around in search of something else to entertain me or something better than what im currently watching- but low and behold everything is on break. Why- what is the logic? surely if things didnt all go on break at the same time channel would have the opportunity to steal viewers who flick around during breaks on other channels?

Irritating beyond belief!

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

if everyone is showing ads at the same time, then you might as well stay on the station you're on instead of flicking.. so you're watching advertising. If they had different times, theres always the chance that no one would ever watch another ad again.. which would be the death blow to many tv channels.

dr.bollocko

That's some well solved thread replying there Dubgirl.
So we can move to another topic, a more burning one that is already threatening to derail this thread:
What do you have against tha poor Gopher?!

egan007

read a book

maki

Switch to BBC. No ads!

Bard

It's easier for TV stations to stick to a fixed and simple format for their programming - especially the satellite channels that don't have live continuity and are effectively pre-programmed with the shows and ads presumably queued in some software package.

The simplest programming format, that a lot of the stations therefore follow, seems to be: "1 hour programme, starts at the top of the hour, ~3 minute ad breaks at 12 mins, 42mins and 57 mins past the hour (or as close as possible) so that each segment of the programme starts as close as possible to the 1/4 hour mark" - or some close variation on that. Most (but not all) satellite stations will have 3 ad breaks per hour.

You'll find that usually stations that are all owned by the same company (e.g.: Dave and the UKTV stations, or Virgin1, Living, Bravo & Challenge, or Sky One, Two and Three - for example) will follow the same format, so if you're watching something on Dave and the ads come on and you flick to UKTV Gold, chances are there's ads there too... and so on.

rgiller

I think you just have to keep trying for a different channel without ads. They do exist. BBC has been mentioned already, there's also sports channels, movie channels, and some of the terrestrial and more eccentric stations that start their programmes at twenty to the hour instead of half past.

I find this much more annoying on the radio to be honest. Driving home after work, the ads on all the interesting channels (Today fm, Newstalk, RTE1) are usually on at the same time, and are a hell of a lot less entertaining than tv ads. On top of this the news is read out religiously every half hour on every channel. There's only 15-20 minutes of content every half hour because of this sh1te :mad:

keane2097

maki wrote: »

Switch to BBC. No ads!

+1

Top Gear all the way imo.

WindSock

Just be thankful we are not like the States. Ad break every 2 feckin minutes :mad:

lostexpectation

and now with tivo etc, the companies are putting the ads within the programs

jester77

Don't watch the programme until it's 15 mins started, rewind and when the ad breaks appear fast forward. By the time the last ad break arrives you will have caught up with it and avoided all the ads.

TvWatcher

on newer channels like Dave etc the ad breaks come in at different intervals than other channels, so you can always flick there and NOT get an ad break ...

on Paramount the ad breaks between shows are very short (30 secs) but the ones in the middle of shows are really long (about 5 mins) ... weird.

Eoin

TvWatcher wrote: »

on Paramount the ad breaks between shows are very short (30 secs) but the ones in the middle of shows are really long (about 5 mins) ... weird.

Probably because if you've watched the first half of a show, you're more likely to suffer a longer advert break to watch the second half. If the longer break is between shows, then you're more likely to switch around.

TvWatcher

makes sense