TV networks accused of ‘pushing boundaries’ on ad break length with major reality shows
The major TV networks have all been accused “pushing the boundaries” on the number of ads in their major franchise reality shows such as The Voice, House Rules and Masterchef, filling up to a third of the program run times with commercials.
Analysis put together for Mumbrella on the major reality franchises for Seven, Nine and Ten shows indicates all three have been running more than the permitted 14 minutes stipulated in the Commercial TV Code of Practice.
According to data supplied by advertising monitoring company Ebiquity from the nights of May 5, 6 and 7, Nine’s The Voice is the worst offender with a program on May 5 running 29 minutes and 10 seconds of advertising in an 1 hour 37 minute program.
Media analyst Steve Allen said: “They are pushing the boundaries no question in over commercialising a key program and the risk that they take, which obviously they have calculated, is that the advertising volume will actually detract and they will start to lose audience as a result of it. That’s the problem.”
Most sane people can’t watch a show on commercial TV anymore – too many ads.
A major reason for the rise of the ‘box set’.
I Foxtel IQ every single tv show I watch-because of advertising and the length-all they have managed to do is lose me all together – should have kept in reasonable!
Confirmation of what we suspected, treating viewers and advertisers like muppets, very short term thinking, and encourages channel flicking, thank goodness for the PVR.
[quote] “And a Channel Seven spokesman said: “Seven takes its broadcasting responsibilities very seriously and has sophisticated scheduling systems in place to ensure we do not exceed the permitted advertising limits.” [unquote]
I watch one particular programme on seven regularly, and I am very cross when the dialogue in a particular scene is cut before it naturally terminates to allow for ads.
This practice comes under the heading of rudeness and neglect for the interests of your audience. It is the equivalent of saying “We don’t care if you miss out on your programme, so long as you see and hear all the adverts.”
There should be legislation that no more than a certain amount of commercial minutage is permitted per hour. It ruins viewing of these shows to have half the airtime to be adverts, it means we all end up watching it on catch-up to skip the ads!
more of a reason why I watch The Voice on its website.
The ads and promotions are a complete turn-off for me. I sampled a random 20 minutes of My Kitchen Rules earlier in the year: 40 per cent of the time was consumed by ads and promotional content. I never returned to the show. Commercial radio (talk stations) are just as bad.
I thought it was plainly obvious there is a wild unnatural amount of adverts on TV channels in Australia, to the point that any drama or movie that tries to tell a story is unwatchable because of the sheer amount of advert breaks.
Compared to, say, ITV or Channel 4 in the UK that obviously place the ads at much better moments, and appear to have less ads (definitely during movies, but almost always ONLY at the halfway point of a show and between shows, never the very annoying habit of two minutes before the end of a show).
Not to mention that anyone who works for television scheduling has trouble with telling the time. That and their habit of increasing the volume during ads. Even if they try and say the sound is the same level, only thicker.
What really annoys me is their advertorials during their morning ‘news’ shows. These should also be counted as commercials in determining if they have exceeded their guideines
We watch any series on DVD; the occasional one we see on ‘Free’ TV usually has TVC segments longer than the little bits of program that flash through — especially towards the end of the show. They even do it with the (usually) crap programs on the secondary channels.
Gave up watching drama on TV long ago, buy the DVDs. Gave up Fockstel as well…pay to watch ads? I don’t think so.
As for the undeniably louder volume during breaks: fancy lying about that when the TV set shows the volume levels. Treating us like 3-year-olds — and I’m over it. ‘Not going to put up with it any more’ as the crazy guy said in Network.
From many of your comments, self regulation does not seem to be working well. Most of us, enjoy our TV and are looking at ways to limit the tsunami of advertising.
When will the head honchos get the message?
There some reports of relaxing media rules in the weekend papers from Mr Turnbull? Do we need to write to him and our local member and explain that from a viewers perceptive the current model is irrevocably broken?
The deliberate running of shows late is called “bridging” within the industry. Yes the networks have a name for it – unbelievable. The 6 o’clock evening news always starts on time to the second so the networks can run on time if they want to.
We have a PVR and record everything and rarely watch live TV anymore. Our Beyonwiz PVR lets us press a button to skip forward 30 seconds during playback of recordings. Press it 5 times – no ads.
It’s no wonder the TV networks are loosing to illegal downloading of TV shows that are earlier, have no ads, are in HD & surround sound unlike Aus which are broadcast in SD and stereo months later. My mother had Downtown Abbey Season 3 on DVD months before it was on 7. Aus FTA networks treat their viewers with absolute disdain. The ACMA must be made to regulate them and stop the self regulation via the Code of Practice that clearly isn’t working.
Also the main channel of each network should be either HD or simulcast in SD & HD as Australia has gone backwards with the primary channel of each network which the major shows are broadcast is SD only now! In 2010 we had all the major shows in HD but not 2014.
Hey everyone!
Its all about the money for the Networks. Anyone surprised?
If a show rates, they slam up the commercial content available and reap the revenue rewards.
We all have choices. We can PVR or use the Foxtel box (if you are silly enough to pay for the privilege of watching ads) ……and many of us do.
So why whinge? The advertisers are not voting with their feet & in the case of the Voice, neither are the viewers – 1.8m a night.
Personally I can’t see the issue as we all have choices as to how we consume the content.
The ads are bad enough but its the interminable repitition of house ads that really p#ss me off. I haven’t watched any of the big shows this year because I’ve already watched them .
But the free to airs are bastions of virtue when compared to Foxtel – and more particularly the lifestyle channels. Those bastards will cut a program mid-word to put their house ads in -exactly the same one you saw ten minutes before, and ten minutes before that ad nauseum. We no longer watch any channels “live” – we record just about everything and flash through the ads at 30X.
Did you hear that, advertisers? We’re not alone!
we pay for Foxtel and are bombarded by advertising to the point of now having to record programmes to later view giving you the option of fast forwarding the advertising crap, i wonder how many others are now doing the same, i bet the advertiser would love those statistics, F__k you Foxtel.
They can do as they like cos they know the people looking after the public are gutless