Have you watched any of the Ryder Cup golf matches? This week we recorded Day 1 of the competition and watched it in less than 2 hours and 30 minutes. The telecast itself was 6 hours and 30 minutes in length. If we subtract one hour for Ryder Cup history and other useless conversation we calculate that 3 hours of the broadcast was devoted purely to ad time. This represents about 46% of total TV viewing time. In other words, you were “treated” to 3 hours of repeat ads (sometimes called “brainwashing”) in exchange for presenting the actual golf content. This does not include what the networks call “Golf Playing Through” where the TV screen is split so you see and hear commercials on half the screen and view (without sound) golf on the other half. It also does not include all the voice overs for various promos that very few people care about–but which adds bucks to the network pocket. Some of the ads were shown up to 30 times. If you’re OK with that amount of add time and aren’t concerned that it will continue to grow until somebody gripes—then move on to the next post. But if you’re unhappy with all the interruptions–SPEAK UP!! tell the networks how you feel. Those of us old enough to remember know that years ago “pay television” was supposed to be “ad free”. Supposedly your TV subscription would be adequate to cover costs and generate an acceptable network operating profit. Funny how that concept never saw the light of day…and never will unless you take a few minutes to object.
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