Pop-Ups Move to TV Set From Computer Screen

Dow Jones Newswires ^ | 9/20/02 | Biran Steinberg

[GeneD]

NEW YORK -- We'll return to our regularly scheduled program right after this brief message. And before we get to that brief message -- well, here's a briefer one.

Pop!

As an "NYPD Blue" rerun unspools on Court TV, the screen shrinks and shifts. Up from the bottom rises a message: This episode of the famed cop show is brought to you by Planters' nuts, the salty Kraft Foods Inc. snack. As a movie plays on AOL Time Warner Inc. cable-counterpart TNT, a quiz runs across the bottom of the screen, asking viewers a question about the film. It's sponsored by United Parcel Service Inc. Earlier this year, TNT tested a tactic that had a message from an American Express Co. financial-services operation appear -- just as Steve Martin faced a particularly thorny money decision during "Father of the Bride II."

[GeneD]

Good job, guys! Let's chase more people from the TVs! I'll drink to that!

Viewers must complain to any company that runs pop-up ads on TV.

[GeneD]

My brain has taken a rest lately. This was written by Brian Steinberg.

[PetroniDE]

TV Show? What's That?

If it is not football, hockey, baseball, soccer, FoxNews, or the history channel, I don't watch it.

[NautiNurse]

This doesn't surprise me at all. With the new digital recorders, it is remarkably easy to edit out the commercials at the end of the program frame. This way, editing out commercials will be problematic.

[dwollmann]

Maybe this nonsense will help push some folks in the direction of TechTV, Food Network, TLC, and History Channel.

By the way, Alton Brown fans might appreciate this Q&A that appeared on slashdot recently.

[MEGoody]

Ugh! I am so tired of advertising. It's almost everywhere and so in your face.