Whether it works or not NBC is vowing to cut prime time ad by as much as 20% across all TV networks. If you’ve ever watched TV for more than a half hour, and let’s be honest most of us have, then you’ve seen the wide array of commercials and ads that have been flashed by you at maximum speed and stacked one on top of the other to bombard the viewer with what’s new, what’s trendy, and what’s out there to be experienced. It’s a nonstop parade of products and services that a person may or may not have known about that can take up to 8 to 11 minutes every hour to convey, meaning that those 8 to 11 minutes are nothing but ad time. This is true for sitcoms, movies, sporting events, and everything else. You sit and watch commercials hoping against hope that this one will be the last, only to see another one pop up right after, as though reveling in the thought that they’re offering you something so great that you won’t mind that your show isn’t back yet.
Ads are after how some of these networks even have what they need to operate. The companies making the ads tend to fork over a lot of revenue in order to get their message and their product out. So having an ad-free TV experience isn’t likely to come anytime soon, but the 20% less might be an interesting proposition. In the short-term it seems like a horrible idea since it loses revenue and puts the networks in a tight spot. But so many people flip channels trying to see what else is on during a commercial that it could eventually affect the networks in a negative manner. Keeping people tuned in as much as possible is the name of the game after all.
The trick will be to keep the needed revenue and to keep people watching at the same time. There are ideas in place at the moment, such as allowing the show to stay on while the ad for a product or service runs on the same screen or perhaps on a separate screen so as to offer their products/services. So far there is a lot to iron out as this is going to be a big game of give and take that might not balance for a while due to the fact that both sides need each other so much and have to find a common ground from which to compromise. Ad companies obviously don’t want to give up the time they already have in order to push their products, while the TV networks need a way to keep their viewers happy and watching.
Right now the only winners in this particular game are the streaming networks that don’t have to worry as much about commercials, if at all. Hulu has limited commercials, Netflix has none. That could change in the coming future but as of now more and more people are leaning towards fewer or no commercials.
Follow Us
