Long commercial blocks...

[CartoonFridays]

There's been a lot of problems people have been having recently about the seemingly-endless commercial blocks on TV.

During TV's golden age, a timeslot used to be controlled by one or two sponsors that often had a say over a show's content or even owned/controlled a show outright. I believe thanks to the FCC, those slots became a free-for-all for advertisers to buy airtime to hawk their products.

For some time now, especially in this decade, many older shows shows are being time-compressed, having scenes cut/edited or having fake fade-outs just to allow more commercial time, with some ad blocks even running for five minutes. And oftentimes, the show's quality can suffer for it.

For example, NBC's 2012 broadcast of Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol was marred with edits to squeeze it and the commercials into a one-hour slot, the length it was made to run for, while the 2014 broadcast on The CW had it air in a 90-minute slot so it can run unedited while allowing plenty of commercial time. And recently on Nickelodeon, episodes used to start after the show's theme song ended, but now there are commercial bumpers saying that the show will start "in less than two minutes" following the title sequence.

What are your two cents on the issue?

 

[jaylop97]

In Nickelodeon's case they are definitely trying to bring in Ad-Revenue knowing that some of their shows do bring in a lot of people and because of that they air the commercials at that time so they can get many people to watch it.

 

[Mikurotoro92]

NBC is the absolute worst especially with shows like Days of our Lives which is almost unwatchable thanks to all the constant freaking commercials!

The show comes back on for like 5 seconds then boom... goes straight to commercial again!

Yeah I hate this too

As for WHY this is happening:

If I were to guess it's because the networks aren't doing well so they put more ads on there to compensate for lost viewers

 

[RandomMe]

I think I can relate to this problem, yet over here it's much worse.

Since the mid-2000s, ad breaks on SIC and TVI here in Portugal have been airing long ad breaks, usually running between twelve and fifteen minutes. I'm not kidding. Though, over here, we never had the American style of commercial breaks, and whem there's a movie on they take two breaks at best. It's really frustrating.

Is there any reason to revert this situation? There is no reason. TV channels these days air more ads because they want to earn money.

 

[Francisque]

By law, all EU countries are restricted to a maximum of 12 minutes of ads per hour (in any clock hour), with some more restrictions on the public channels; however, laws regarding where to put (in the middle of the show) these ads are more country-specific.. Mediaset channels in Italy, for instance, can be pretty bad

Also by EU laws (among the most important restrictions), you can only insert an internal advert break (but you can still technically insert promos) during a children programme longer than 30 minutes by now (however you can technically bypass this law by having a duration of 31 mins)

Also:
In Italy pay-TV stations ("thanks" to Berlusconi) are restricted to 8 minutes of ads per hour only

A widespread rule of thumb (among all the channels) is to have one internal break for a show scheduled on a 25mins-30mins slot and to have two or (especially on documentary and lifestyle shows) three for one scheduled in a 50mins-55mins-60mins slot

In Italy a "US schedule" based on the 30 minutes is rare (or sometimes obsessed, I should say), and times are a bit all over the place, so that we ended up (recently) with many channels having a prime time at 9:10pm instead of 9:00pm​

 

[ToonJay723]

I hate how channels have become "I don't give a hoot" about cutting scenes. Before they would just remove scenes discreetly. But a few days ago I was watching Married... with Children on LOGO and they would literally cut to commercial in the middle of a character talking. And when they get back from commercial they didn't start back from where they left off, they just went to the next scene.

I don't watch much reruns on live TV nowadays, but I hope other channels aren't doing that. And yes, removing scenes discreetly is just as bad, but at least it's discreet.

 

[Red Arrow]

By law, all EU countries are restricted to a maximum of 12 minutes of ads per hour (in any clock hour)

Sure about that? I'm pretty sure there are at least two channels in Belgium that air more than 12 minutes of ads per hour.

Or maybe ad breaks look longer than they actually are.

 

[RandomMe]

I've seen ad breaks lasting for about fifteen minutes, and that is too much. I think they alleviated the law but we still have long ad breaks, practically one ad break per hour.

In the past, ad breaks were shorter, there was a time where RTP had the longest breaks, SIC and TVI had shorter breaks from time to time as they have started operations back then. Those breaks wouldn't exceed six minutes or so at best and seeing an ad break running for a length shorter than two minutes (outside of special occasions) seems to be impossible to think these days.

 

[Francisque]

Sure about that? I'm pretty sure there are at least two channels in Belgium that air more than 12 minutes of ads per hour.

Or maybe ad breaks look longer than they actually are.

Yep, I'm pretty sure about that
But keep in mind that promos (autopromotion for the channel and the channels that belong to the TV channel's company) do not technically count as ads, and channels are free to show them quite freely, without any restriction

That's why a few channels in Europe (especially in the UK and Scandinavia) are able have programmes with scheduled duration of 60 minutes but just 42 minutes (or a bit more) of "real" programme,for instance

Some years ago, Mediaset got fined by EU authorities pretty badly, when they found out they were disrespecting the 12 mins-law
(They childishly reacted by restricting the number of ads a pay TV channel can show in 2009, in order to stand up against its main competitor: Sky)

 

[RandomMe]

I've also noticed that the number of seconds in shows on network television has decreased a little mostly due to the growth of ad revenue. An episode of CBS series Scorpion lasts on average for 40-41 or so minutes. Most hour-long shows used to have an airtime of 41-42. Half-hour shows have also fallen into this, the length of an episode of The Big Bang Theory varies between 18 and 21 minutes.

 

[Francisque]

I've also noticed that the number of seconds in shows on network television has devreased a little mostly due to the griwth of ad revenue. An episode of CBS series Scorpion lasts on average for 40-41 or so minutes. Most hour-long shows used to have an airtime of 41-42. Half-hour shows have also fallen into this, the length of an episode of The Big Bang Theory varies between 18 and 21 minutes.

Yep, I noticed that

US is pretty "crazy" about the number of ads a channel can show per hour (except the kids channels, which have more "European" limits: 12 mins per hour), although Australia seems even worse (again, except the kids channels, which are even stricter than Europe, for some reasons)

 

[RandomMe]

At least the Portuguese market isn't hyper-competitive, if there were more channels and if Portugal adopted the American scheduling format it would be chaos.

 

[Francisque]

Again, Portugal being in the EU does "help"

You're restricted to 12 minutes of ads per clock hour.. meanwhile, in some non-EU European countries such as Russia, the limit is even stricter: something like 6 or 8 mins per hour

Here's for how the advert laws work in the UK (hopefully Brexit won't mean less restrictions), including rules regarding how many ad breaks a scheduled duration can have
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/32162/costa-april-2016.pdf

 

[Copaci]

Also, Pro TV sometimes is having LONG commercial breaks, and it makes me boring waiting for the show to continue...
Also the 2 principal TVR channels, TVR 1 and TVR 2 are having like this, however their shows and movies are not interrupted, so that's why they're having long commercial breaks.

 

[SpaceCowboy]

TV channels in Spain have long ad breaks right in the middle of a show too.

 

[Francisque]

About that, as I stated in the other thread:
OT: it seems some US networks are going crazier than usual, particularly Viacom, and are packing more adverts than ever, which makes the schedule more 32 or 35 minutes based than based on the half hour, particularly Viacom (see Comedy Central, Nick at Nite, TV Land etc
https://hotair.com/archives/2012/08/16/why-you-should-boycott-the-greedy-s-at-comedy-central/

We're lucky in Europe to have the "12 minutes" per hour rule

 

[kanc]

Since last week Tues-Thurs, N@N has been getting way long commercial block, like losing 3 half hour sitcoms for extra commercials. Biggest record. The most maximum sitcom length is 41 min.
For example Tues Jun 5:

Friends:
11:00p (39 min)
11:39p (38 min)
12:17a (37 min)
12:54a (38 min)
1:32a (39 min)
2:11a (38 min)

George Lopez:
2:49a (41 min)
3:30a (41 min)
4:11a (36 min)
4:47a (35 min)
5:22a (38 min)

 

[RandomMe]

TV channels in Spain have long ad breaks right in the middle of a show too.

More or less the same as in Portugal, usually around twelve to fifteen minutes. When I went to Barcelona in 2015, a break on Cuatro seemed endless.

 

[Francisque]

Since last week Tues-Thurs, N@N has been getting way long commercial block, like losing 3 half hour sitcoms for extra commercials. Biggest record. The most maximum sitcom length is 41 min.
For example Tues Jun 5:

Friends:
11:00p (39 min)
11:39p (38 min)
12:17a (37 min)
12:54a (38 min)
1:32a (39 min)
2:11a (38 min)

George Lopez:
2:49a (41 min)
3:30a (41 min)
4:11a (36 min)
4:47a (35 min)
5:22a (38 min)

It's crazy, if you consider these slots only contain 21 mins of programming (except for some final episodes of Friends which are longer more than 21 mins)

The US has to get some "advertising rules"

And of course, Viacom is quite greedy

 

[kanc]

It's crazy, if you consider these slots only contain 21 mins of programming (except for some final episodes of Friends which are longer more than 21 mins)

The US has to get some "advertising rules"

And of course, Viacom is quite greedy

Well due to some cutting scenes out and/or speeding up, N@N has been doing those for other shows currently and the show length is between 16 min to 20 min.