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Now TBS has on-screen ads all the time

M

MarkL

Just as TNT started doing a few months ago to promote their original series, this morning TBS has an ad for "10 Items or Less" on the screen all the time during their shows.

I can't be the only person who finds this very annoying and wrong. I think it's a turn-off for viewers.
 
No, you're not the only one to find it annoying. Time was that the only annoyance was an announcer audibly stepping on the closing theme song while the credits ran. That seems positively quaint, now that the closing credits are squeezed into a microdot in one corner of the screen while a promo plays (at a higher volume than the show).

Clearly, management at Viacom and other programming providers really don't give a rat's a__ what we think about the proliferation of moving and jumping screen bugs and ads over the shows. Every second of airtime is a platform for more sales. Never mind if it detracts from the viewing experience.

The level of cross-promotion has gotten so out of control that it's getting to be an annoyance to watch ANYTHING on TNT or TBS or any other of their other "basic" cable channels. They stink!! :mad:
 
It always amazes me how the people that run big networks,, or even small stations,, still don't get it. Look at what happened with Clear Channel. They bought a ton of stations, gutted them, raped them,, and they still aren't making money so they have to sell them. Why? Because they don't care about the programming. Music is something to fill the time between spot breaks. Now with this nonsense constantly invading the screen while I try to watch a program,,, forget it,, I turn it off,, its only TV. Think a little further,,, I turn off the set, other people will watch it but will probably get a bad impression of that little blurb that is taking up part of the screen,, so it is actually working aginst them to have it there. Sort of like when I think of "brand X" I think of how annoying it was to see that name on the screen while I was trying to watch a show.

Since you brought this up, I realize that I don't watch TBS because of that.
 
sack said:
Since you brought this up, I realize that I don't watch TBS because of that.
Click to expand...

Last night, while TRYING to watch Family Guy on TBS, they had a 1/3 screen promo for this new production of theirs "10 items of less". These damn things involved moving people in a shopping cart, careening across the bottom 1/3 of the screen, then some idiot making a gesture and a lot of chyron. During the show! It often blocked visual elements of the FG - basically anything that was in the lower portion of the screen.

They did this following each and every break, plus they left up a bug promoting the show in the lower right hand corner. Eventually, I got disguisted and turned it off. Isn't there anything that can be done to protest crap like this??

And, to top it off, Comcast is raising rates by more than 3% - again! They cite increased programming costs. Yet, the programming consistently goes downhill in quality and in presentation. Ugh!
 
Oh come on...like you don't have every word of that Family Guy episode memorized by now. Just buy the damn DVDs if you care about it so much.
 
marko83 said:
Oh come on...like you don't have every word of that Family Guy episode memorized by now. Just buy the damn DVDs if you care about it so much.
Click to expand...

That's not the point. We indirectly pay for these channels (via our cable/dish bills) in order to view the content on them (i.e. the programs that they show). Should we buy the DVDs for every program on TBS? Why pay for cable then? Just buy tons of DVDs. I suppose that if we all did that, Viacom would go out of business. But that's not a reasonable expectation, now is it? :p

Gimme a break.
 
I see your point but until people start to cancel their cable it doesn't matter. Matter of fact if you're not a Nielsen family it doesn't matter what you watch as no one counts it.

I cancelled my cable and was happy to save the $60/month.

Unfortunately, advertising that is in your face works. My business partner was in the advertising business and when you establish ads that are in your face they are quite effective. Remember that the ads like that appeal to the younger set and this is age segment advertisers care about.
 
they do this more becouse of the TIVO generation (like me) I have not watched a commercial (unless I wanted to) in 2 years. I noticed that courtv even runs commercials along the bottom of the screen on some of their shows (this show brought to you by the new hamburger sandwich at McChoke & puke), I have started buying allot of these shows on dvd just becouse I am fed up with all the crap they have on the screen (and cut out scenes on syndicated shows). The one that really made me mad was an old one on TNT for nascar where they had the air gun sound with the bug and it was 10% louder than the show.

I don't think cable cares too much but if you are on Dish or Directv (are are not under a contract) when they raise the price all you have to do is call and grumble about it and tell them your thinking about going to the competitor and they will usually make a deal to keep you...I havent paid full price for HBO ($2 a month) in a year and had 6 months of free showtime.
 
TBS has been doing this for quite a while,and it is not just TBS that is doing this,every cable and network channel even local stations do this. What I hate is the scrunched up end credits that they put in a corner where you have to have good eyesight and fast vision to see who's who on each show,meanwhile in the next corner they plug another TV show or more advertising. Another thing that's annoying is that square TV rating that they put up on top of the screen which sometimes takes up the whole front part of the screen. Many shows that have end credits that show more of the show with bloopers,etc. like Family Matters and Boy Meets World are affected by this as well.
 
Braves2005 said:
TBS has been doing this for quite a while,and it is not just TBS that is doing this,every cable and network channel even local stations do this. What I hate is the scrunched up end credits that they put in a corner where you have to have good eyesight and fast vision to see who's who on each show,meanwhile in the next corner they plug another TV show or more advertising. Another thing that's annoying is that square TV rating that they put up on top of the screen which sometimes takes up the whole front part of the screen. Many shows that have end credits that show more of the show with bloopers,etc. like Family Matters and Boy Meets World are affected by this as well.
Click to expand...

TBS has been doing on-screen ads for quite a while... but this is the first time they had an ad on the screen for the entire time during a show. I mean, the ad never went away until the commercial break. Then it came back afterwards.

They aren't doing it today. I suppose they will only do it when they have a new episode of one of their original series on that night.
 
M.J. said:
Too bad you don't get the local WTBS 17 feed like I do up in Canada...
Click to expand...

I take it that the local version isn't as hot and heavy in promoting shows as the national version.

On a similar tangent, NBC-owned Bravo is doing the same thing, plugging "Six Feet Under".
 
Right now on TBS I just see only an idle TBS logo during "Family Guy".
 
I'm watching Family Guy right now also. The ad for "10 items or less" is on the screen during the entire show.

But now they just ran a crawl on the bottom of the screen promoting that show... like a weather alert on a local station. wow! TBS is getting quite aggressive!
 
Apparently, NBC's cable outlets are now using the "all promos on screen, all the time" tactic -- SciFi's using it, as well.

Pretty soon, I imagive EVERYONE will be doing it.

Making cable even more worthless than it is now.
 
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