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DVD TV Tells all (1 Viewer)

John*Wells

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Okay So I just got done watching an ep of Star Trek TOS in my dvd. It lasted about 50 minutes from opening credits to closing credits. Earlier this week, I finished watching Enterpise. The eps ran about 44 minutes from open to close

what has TV Come to? 16 minutes of ads for every hour of TV now days?? Thats sad
 

Claude North

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Deregulation in the 1980s eliminated the limit on the number of minutes of ad time per hour of television, thus giving birth to the infomercial and shows with shorter running times.
 

Corey3rd

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Remember that when these shows go into syndication, they get another few minutes clipped. So you're watching a minute of ads per 2 minutes of program.

A lot of people I know prefer to watch TV shows on DVD so they don't get them butchered up and interupted. How many times do you flip to TVLand and discover it's a break?
 

beatlejam

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Not to mention all the little logos and messages, etc., that pop up all the time now. :angry:
Whoever came up with that idea needs to be strung up by the thumbs! :)
 

AnthonyC

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While I can't stand the FCC's censorship stuff, I do wish they enforced a limit on the amount of time of commercials per hour. 12-14 minutes would be suitable...even 16-17.

Most primetime hour-long shows run between 41 and 42 minutes nowadays, maybe slightly more.
 

Richard_Gregory

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Ashas been said, this was when advertising was deregulated. Most "hour-long" shows used to be about fifty minuted, or longer, that has been much reduced to allow for more adverts. Even shows made here in the UK by the BBC (which has no advertising, except for itself!) are made to fit into hour long slots with lots of advert breaks, so that they are attractive to the US networks.

Thankfuly, advertising in the UK *is* still regulated; there can only be a certain number of breaks of a limited duration, per hour, and they can't be too close together.

The US is a nightmare, with a break right after the teaser trailer and what feels like a ten minute break every five minutes.

US shows always run short here, cos we have less advertising; the channels fill the extra ten minutes with trailers instead!

Sadly, we are moving closer to you with those awful onscreen DOGs, ruined closing titles (squished into half a screen whilst an inane voice tells you what's on next, like the EPG doesn't tell you, DUH!), and in the latest slide, even the venerable BBC has started to put those annoying popups with "coming next". That started on their digital service, BBC3/4, but has now spread its nastiness to BBC2.

I've already written to them saying that the effect of "informing the viewer of programming choices" is this one choosing to change to another channel.

Thank goodness for DVD. I wouldn;t bother to record anything these days.
 

Regulus

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Yes, there was once a time when you only had 10 minutes of Commercials and Promos per hour. This changed in the 1970s when the Nation's Bicentennial came upon us. The Netwoeks decided to do a "200 Years ago Today" spot that aired just after the Show ended. Of Course, the shows length decreased from 50 minutes to 45 minutes. Finally the Bicentennial was over. The Networks deciced to replace the "Bicentennial Breaks" with "Newsbreaks" Then Deregulation (And some Court Decisions) came along. The Number of Commercials began to increase. Now You have to cope with :frowning: 20 Minutes of Commercials, Newsbreaks and promos:frowning: for each hour of TV you watch!:angry: At the same time the quality of the shows coming out has sank to new lows. I finally decided I had enough of this. Using Money that was left over from a vacation I went on, I walked into a Video Store and bought over $400 Worth of DVD Box Sets. I then Cancelled my Cable TV Subscription. I use the money I would have spent on Cable TV to purchase more DVDs. (I keep my eye open for the bargains each week) I now have over 2,000 Hours of TV Shows, and I have only just begun. The Worst is yet to happen. Not a Day goes by when you hear about next year's Presidential Election. Already there are Campaign Ads being aired in some places. By the end of this year the "Attack Ads" will be coming Heavy and Thick! :eek: But this time it will not be like previous years. For once in my life I will not have to watch a Program with one hand on the Remote, Finger at the "Mute Button". I will be watching my DVDs :D FREE :D from those Annoying Ads (And not just the political ones!) If you think I am an "Ostritch" Think Again! I continue to get my news from Newspapers and the Internet. The Daytime is for "The Real World". During the Evenings I just want to relax and ENJOY my Entertainment!

'Nuff Said?
 

John*Wells

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So apparently, you guys are all saying the only way to stop this is to put pressure on Washington to re regulate ...Well lets get started :)
 

MatthewA

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I would like to see a limit on commercial time similar to that of the 1950s...8 minutes per hour. And I would like it across the board. Daytime TV, late night, EVERYTHING.
 

John Carr

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Folks it ain't gonna happen -- money talks, bullshit walks.

If you think Washtington gives a damn about anything other than the next election -- get your head out of the sand.

The only thing that is going to change with "commercial" TV is more ads and more reality programming... Sigh.

That's why I cut off cable and only watch my TV on DVD! And, thank god, for this forum!

John
 

Glenn Overholt

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There has been some talk of puttings the 'ads' into the shows themselves - this way they can make the shows 55 minutes, and leave the other 5 for ads for other shows, but the naysayers are telling me that when they do this, they won't change a thing, just to get the additional ad revenue.

I wonder if Jack Bauer drinks Bud!

Glenn
 

Regulus

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:D Way to go John Carr! :D It's nice to know someone else is doing the same thing I have done! What we need is to have MILLIONS (And I'm talking Double-Digit Millions here) To BOYCOTT Network, Cable and Satellite Television. If enough people do this we can start a "Media Meltdown" that will shake the Entertainment and Information Industry to its Foundations! If all the Networks and their Advertisers care about is their Stock Dividends then lets get them where it HURTS THE MOST! In their Pocketbook! :D
 

Joe Lugoff

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When I grew up in the '50s, most shows had 39 episodes a year and there were four minutes of commercials to the half-hour, so a half-hour show ran 26 minutes.

Now they do 22 episodes a year and a half-hour show runs 22 minutes. So we've gone from 39x26 = 1,014 minutes a year to 22x22 = 484 minutes a year -- and the actors complain that they're overworked and some of them want $1,000,000 an episode (which is much more than the much better actors of the old days earned in their entire careers!)

I really don't care -- I stopped watching network television three decades ago. And I'm not the only one, to put it mildly -- a top rated show now will get a rating of 15, which meant instant cancellation in the old days. The top shows then had ratings over 30, some over 40! These days it's common that the average rating for a network's entire week is lower than the rating the lowest rated TV show would get thirty or forty years ago.
 

AnthonyC

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But there were only three national networks back then. Of course the ratings for each show would be higher.
 

Steve Meil

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Thanks to DVR technology I rarely watch any show live. Sometimes I will delay watching about 20 minutes so I can get through it. Although the lengths of the shows have decreased over the years, the biggest problems are the on screen logos and animated crap that you have to put up with. Sometimes you even have the local station have some ridiculous news item pop in.The cable networks like USA + FX are even worse.And they wonder why less and less people are watching. At least with DVDV's we have that option to watch without interuptions and logos. Another problem, watching a theatrical movie on a channel thats not commercial free. Between the edits, commercials and the animated crap (BRAVO COMES TO MIND) I will never watch.
 

Regulus

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Whenever A Network is showing a Movie on TV I'll often watch the Same Movie if I have it on VHS or DVD. In a Couple of Weeks ABC will invariably show the Classic Cecil B, Damilles The Ten Commandments When they start their version I'll start mine. Last year I actually amazed some guests when The Movie Ended and there was over 90 Minutes left on the network version. I told my guests that that was how many minutes of Commercials that the network had packed into their Movie! Another Outrage, Commercials have made Sporting events unbearable to watch. During the World Series last October, They actually took a Commercial Break BETWEEN "OUTS"! I couldn't help what the fans in the Stadium thought as the Game stopped there, and wondered "Why is the Pitcher just standing there?, There is still one Out to go before they change positions!" (Yes they did break for MORE Commercials at that point.) Here's some more "Food for Thought". The Networks (Both Conventional AND Cable) Actually made LESS Money from Commercials this last year than they did from the previous year, even thoughh they ADDED 2 1/2 minutes of commercials from the previous year. I attribute this to Economics 101 "Supply and Demand" They already have a Product whos Supply is HIGH and demand is LOW. Some Buffoon then says "Lets INCREASE the supply of our Product." Needless to say demand does not increase at all. Consequently they make LESS Money! And they cannot figure out why they made less money!
 

Corey3rd

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the nasty attack ads will now be taking place on the internet - Youtube will be the pig sty of choice.

I'm watching the Miami Vice season 3 so at least in 1987 we had 48 minute shows.

as far as placing ads in a show - that's 1950s thinking back when a sponsor paid for the show - Watch the PD DVDs and see how the cast would promote a product during the show and the break. Lucy and Ricky smoked Phillip Morris cigarettes during the show. And Burns and Allen always had Carnation milk around the house.

There's no way to get the govt. to limit ad breaks. The biggest offenders aren't even running ads - merely channel promos. How many times do I need to get told by AMC what kinda people watch their movies?

A couple years ago my mom discovered that WGN was clipping an entire five minute segment from their daytime running of Rockford as opposed to the overnight version - gotta sell those scooters.

It seems like a majority of the TV shows I buy on DVD are series that nobody cares to run anymore - or they give them the worst time slots. TVLand has been a major disappointment.
 

John*Wells

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If I remember correctly, When Nick at Nite first came out in 1985 (I think thats when it launched) they ran the shows with 26 minutes and one ad in them. I loved to watch Mr. Ed and My Three Sons every weeknight. I VCR'd Nearly all of Mr Ed but when I bought my DVD recorder and started coverting them, from VHS the tapes had deteriorated and the sound quality was poor. And to date Mr Ed full season releases seem unlikely
 

Kris_AB

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It'll never happen, but screwing with network television would be sweet. Why would you wanna mess with Cable though ? Are we talking premium cable like HBO, Showtime, and FX ? That's who I'm thinking of when you say "cable.

But yeah, premium cable pretty much gives you what you want (aside from when they cancel expensive shows like Rome, Carnivale, and Deadwood due to not bringing in Sopranos-sized numbers as far as subscriptions and renewals go). They don't worry about ad revenue as far as I know. At least, not in the same fashion network-TV does.
 

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