Posted on 09/15/2006 5:44:41 PM PDT by Dysart
LONDON (Reuters) - Niche men's channel FX plans to show what it calls the first UK advert specially designed to combat viewers using digital recorders to avoid commercials.
The advert for its new drama "Brotherhood" will show a single image on the screen for the entire 30-second slot, and therefore retain its "sales message" when viewed even at the 12-times speeds enabled by Sky+ and other digital recorders, also known as personal video recorders, or PVRs.
Advertisers have been racing to find ways to get messages through as higher numbers of consumers watch TV programs when they want using such recorders, often skipping the commercials.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
It sure seems like someone being smart about the future rather than fearing it. It's a great thing to see. If only the music industry had gone that way. If they had, they would probably not be struggling now.
I've been wondering how advertisers were going to defeat Tivo.
I don't own a dvr/tivo, but I'm sure many here do. I relegate my viewing predominantly to news and sports programming so I really have no need for the device. If there is something I want to record on DISC, PBS, NG, Hist Ch, OLN, or Lifetime(j/k!), I use my dvd recorder and either endure the commercials or fast forward... I knew one day that one of the key advantages of the DVR would be compromised.
They've BEEN doing this (making it where ads could be fastforwarded and still read).
Look at the text that is slowly displayed in the center of the screen. Sometimes a black screen. Videotape had skew when fastforwarded but no significant details were in the ads there.
My DVR drive will "advance" 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes without having to show me any of what is in between. So unless they are bumping up the "male interest" factor (i.e. sexy women), men are unlikely to even try looking for the ads.
More likely, the future of advertising will be "popups" that superimpose over the program itself (look at the CW logo hype or whatever that new channel is called). That or to the side of the program (as we go to widescreen tv, there will be a lot of "gutter" from the old format that 50 years of tv reruns are still formatted to (unless we start chopping off the top and bottom of the screen on old shows).
The OTHER options they have are digital lockout on changing rhe volume/channel (like a DVD remote is locked out when you load most discs) or these new 8 second "branding" corporate anthems (its not just the networks that use them these days).
I did not know that!
Someone should make an ad that has a second "layer" that can ONLY be seen by the DVR
The thing is that many television viewers loathe commercials because they're frequently insulting and obnoxious. If Madison Avenue would grasp that and reform their tactics, they would find an audience more willing to absorb their pitch more willingly. It appears that their intention, though, is to cook up techological processes to counter prior technology which made them extraneous in some respects.
some ads are pretty good these days. I loved that Gap commercial that made a new hit out of the old "jump jive and wail" song. I used to run into the room to watch that!
I actually really like commercial breaks, they give you a chance to get up and leave the room for a minute or three, very handy for cooking, cleaning, etc.
Okay, I'll concede the upside there...
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