The “business model” for network television companies is very simple. They sell “air time” to advertisers who promote their products to the viewing audience. The more popular the TV program–the more the networks charge because, theoretically, more viewers see the ads. The problem: THE NUMBER AND FREQUENCY OF MEDIA ADS ARE OUT OF CONTROL. Network greed has become rampant. As just some examples: local TV news programs are now nearly 50% commercial interruptions. The typical college basketball game has over 150 full length commercial interruptions. The last NCAA tournament basketball game I monitored had 197 commercials. This does not count the number of super-imposed images and voice-overs during the games’ action. Professional sports are also affected in a major (pardon the pun) way. Football games that were slotted for 3 hours in the past are now scheduled for an extra 30 minutes. This extra 30 minutes is to accommodate 20 more commercials while you’re held hostage to watching the game. And Major League Baseball is part of the onslaught. Various rule changes have been made or are being considered because the time “saved” by these changes will allow for more commercials and keep the overall game time from expanding. Keep in mind that all changes will impact the outcome of the game. The tail is beginning to wag the dog. It’s so ridiculous in televised golf that the ratio of swings shown to commercials is 1 to 1. TV now uses the “golf playing through” ruse to increase ad time even further.

I checked with the Federal Communications Commission to determine whether networks were required to provide a specific amount of actually published programming on their schedule. In other words, if the 6:00 PM time slot showed “Local News”, is their a minimum amount of time that is really news broadcasting? The answer is: “no”. So networks can and will continue to assault us with less actual program content and more interruptions that could increase your frustrations and impact game results.

HOW TO “GAME” THE SYSTEM: RECORD EVERY PROGRAM YOU WATCH AND FAST FORWARD THROUGH THE COMMERCIALS WHEN YOU VIEW THOSE EVENTS. Advantages: (1) you will save 50% of your viewing time to do other things; (2) you will avoid boring brain-washing ad repeats; (3) you will send a message to the networks that you’ve had enough and want to stop being held hostage to your favorite programming.

At my house, we watch local news in 16 minutes, Jeopardy in 17 minutes, a three hour golf show in 1 hour and 17 minutes. We find we have time to watch an occasional movie or search out other programs without calling it a night at bed time.

Question: do you want to waste all your time being held hostage to repeated ads or do you want to send a message that your life is too important to spend it being brain-washed so the network execs can pad their bonuses?

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