Are stations slowly hijacking the lower 3d - (like Youtube)

[Nathyn]

Seriously. Think about all the films you seen recently. You like them? Someone had to advertise them to let you know they were coming out. Many of us here have a trailer for some kind of film. Aren't those ads? Don't we put them on TV if we have the money? Don't we work for people who advertise? Isn't that where much of our money comes from? Every ad can't be about camera equipment or something you like.

We find out about a lot of things via ads. When I make book I advertise them, not on TV but online and by handing out flyers and other things. No one likes ads...at least ads that they feel have anything to do with them, but this whole site is based on advertising. The big names here make money from clients who're advertising. Most people here do not pull big dough from narrative filmmaking, almost none of us do. It's weddings, commercials or music videos (ads for songs), that's feeding a lot of people here.

And you wouldn't know jack about, the 4 hour DVX battery offered on this site, or any of the deals at Spec Comm unless this stuff was advertised. Word of mouth simply doesn't cut it. I don't talk to any of you outside of this site. Someone has to tell you about their product. Or you won't buy it simply because you don't know it exist. Complaining about ads in a capitalist society is generally laughable, particularly when some of those ads are probably putting food on some other DVXU member's table.

-Nate

 

[Alex H.]

But what does that have to do with destroying perfectly framed 16x9 shots from a episodic TV series with animated station crap and coming-up-next, and drink coke - with-in the program stream - not when the show breaks for your typical 6-spot/4-spot/8-spot ISCI jam.

The economy's been in the terlet the last few years, in case you hadn't noticed. And with sales in a slump, three factors are at play:

1) Networks need advertising to pay for their programming. Advertisers don't spend as much on campaigns when spending's down that far. So the networks have to come up with enticing alternatives to the :30 ad... something that costs a little less and adds a value for the advertiser.

2) Advertisers are suffering due to lagging sales, so they don't spend as much on advertising since the revenue to pay for the ads isn't coming in. Yet, companies need to advertise to try and remind people that they can still spend money. So the advertisers are looking for alternatives to the :30 ad.

3) The traditional commercial break is less effective nowadays. It's even less effective for folks who record their favorite shows to watch later. Most of us fast-forward the ole' Betamax through the commercials. So in-programming blocks are the only places left that we aren't going to skip. Hence the lower 3rd bugs and animations.

Face it: we're a captive audience. We are at the whim of the programming, ad sales, and traffic departments. We can revolt and stop watching, or we can try to find other ways to watch the same programming without all the added crap. But where the viewership flocks, there will the ads be also. That would also be why we're seeing this garbage online now.

Paradigms shift all the time. I see this as no different. There will come a day when networks and advertisers hit the breaking point and viewers can no longer tolerate the distractions. But until then, it is the way it is. Write letters. Complain. Ultimately, the viewership can change the way things are done... unless the advertising actually works.