# Micro-commercials: Accidental, or deliberate? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 8, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444 "2016-07-08T23:30:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/1 "2016-07-08T23:30:50Z")
Every now and then during a commercial break, there’ll be a commercial that flashes on the screen for, like, a second. They look like tiny bits of full-length commercials. Are they put there on purpose by the advertiser, or are they a slip-up by the television network, not correctly judging the amount of time before the show goes back on the air? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/2 "2016-07-08T23:35:36Z")
I think but cannot be sure that the local affiliate or the cable network intended to replace one commercial with another, but slightly missed the timing. ---
**Author:** ![andrewm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@andrewm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewm)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/3 "2016-07-08T23:58:11Z")
It’s the local affiliate (or maybe cable provider) replacing the national ads in the national network feed (with local ads), but missing the timing slightly. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/4 "2016-07-09T00:06:38Z")
Yes, it’s this. Most TV stations use a computer to automatically insert commercials in a show and program them in ahead of time. The software will automatically insert a commercial into a scheduled program break, often on top of another commercial. It’s rare that there will be a person at a control panel manually inserting commercials into a show. Most channels are totally automated. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/5 "2016-07-09T03:11:35Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I think but cannot be sure that the local affiliate or the cable network intended to replace one commercial with another, but slightly missed the timing. > [@andrewm](#): > > It’s the local affiliate (or maybe cable provider) replacing the national ads in the national network feed (with local ads), but missing the timing slightly. I saw what you did there. Well played. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/6 "2016-07-09T03:24:55Z")
[Previous thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=652172) ---
**Author:** ![Me\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Me\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Billy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/7 "2016-07-09T14:43:00Z")
> [@andrewm](#): > > It’s the local affiliate (or maybe cable provider) replacing the national ads in the national network feed (with local ads), but missing the timing slightly. This is what is happening. Local TV usually gets it right. Cable TV messes it up. It all has to do with having the accurate time to the second - synchronizing clocks national and local. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/8 "2016-07-09T15:26:40Z")
It’s subliminal advertising. You may suddenly find yourself with a craving for Bloggo’s chocolate or desperate to go out and buy a new Hummer. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/9 "2016-07-09T16:13:51Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Yes, it’s this. Most TV stations use a computer to automatically insert commercials in a show and program them in ahead of time. The software will automatically insert a commercial into a scheduled program break, often on top of another commercial. It’s rare that there will be a person at a control panel manually inserting commercials into a show. Most channels are totally automated. Especially noticeable here in the San Juan cable system since it will put a local ad (in PR-accent Spanish) on top of a network ad that starts in another language or accent. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/10 "2016-07-09T16:16:59Z")
> [@Me\_Billy](#): > > This is what is happening. Local TV usually gets it right. Cable TV messes it up. It all has to do with having the accurate time to the second - synchronizing clocks national and local. That’s the likely explanation, but hard to believe it happens. My cable TV station syncs up to Internet time by accessing a network time server several times an hour. If it can’t reach the primary or secondary time server, I get an email about it (I could set it up to instantly text me). And this is a tiny local station. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/11 "2016-07-09T16:33:56Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > That’s the likely explanation, but hard to believe it happens. My cable TV station syncs up to Internet time by accessing a network time server several times an hour. If it can’t reach the primary or secondary time server, I get an email about it (I could set it up to instantly text me). And this is a tiny local station. Syncing time is one thing, syncing digital signal processing delays is another. ---
**Author:** ![Me\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Me\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Billy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/12 "2016-07-09T20:41:54Z")
Compare your cell phone time to the second to your computer internet synchronized time to the second. The same? Also cable TV has to synch with many different stations and these signals go over several different satellites. Local TV just needs to synch with New York and the signal is going through just one satellite. ---
**Author:** ![Kyrie\_Eleison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kyrie_eleison/32/7682_2.png) [@Kyrie\_Eleison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyrie_Eleison)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/13 "2016-07-10T16:22:44Z")
Although it has to do with timing and synchronization, it has nothing to do with clock synchronization. Ad insertion technology doesn’t care about wall clock time. As explained upthread, those flashes of commercial are the result timing errors in the insertion of local ads. The local ads are meant to overlay the “micro commercials” which are actually short bits of a whole commercial carried in the network feed. From a long-ago post: > [@Who Controls the Airing of TV Commercials?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-controls-the-airing-of-tv-commercials/634988/21): > > It’s a timing error, but not because of clock synchronization. You see this mostly on cable networks with local ad insertion. Cable head-ends are lights-out operations i.e. fully automated. The cable network uses signals in their satellite transmission to indicate where ads may be placed. Older systems used high-speed dual-tone multifrequency tone sequences (aka DTMF, like the sound when you press a phone button) in main, secondary, or side-band audio to signal that a break was coming up in a pre-determined number of seconds (usually around 8 seconds or so.) A machine in the cable head-end then plays out an ad at the appropriate time. > > The eight second delay from the tone to the spot is to allow the automated tape deck to cue up the right ad. Needless to say, few if any cable companies use tape these days, but the system persists. With room for error in the insertion of the tone, its reception, and the selection and playback of the ad, the whole system isn’t really exact enough to allow insertion with precision any closer than a second or two. Hence, you often see some of the spot that’s being overlaid. > > Eventually, the audio tones gave way to proprietary signaling mechanisms implemented by satellite receiver, or more precisely, integrated receiver decoder (IRD) manufacturers. The IRDs usually have both dry contact switches and audio outputs which control the ad insertion equipment directly or can be attached to the DTMF detectors to do so. > > And finally, the most modern ad insertion system is based on a Society of Cable Telecommunication Engineers (SCTE) standard called SCTE 35. SCTE 35 has been adopted by most networks, but the cost of upgrading old equipment in thousands of cable head-ends has resulted in the continuing support of older systems as well. SCTE 35 and few related standards that extend 35 allow frame-accurate insertion of digital audiovisual content in digital programming streams. ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/14 "2016-07-10T17:16:23Z")
Some times I see shortened or truncated ads, and they often repeat 2x. What’s up with that? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/15 "2016-07-10T19:35:35Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > It’s subliminal advertising. You may suddenly find yourself with a craving for Bloggo’s chocolate or desperate to go out and buy a new Hummer. Yes, the power of [subliminal advertising](http://www.snopes.com/business/hidden/popcorn.asp) has been proven beyond doubt. Once, after a brief flash of an ad for a lawyers’ group, I was barely able to avoid the temptation to file a talcum powder lawsuit. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2016, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/16 "2016-07-10T20:10:06Z")
Blipverts. That is all. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2016, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/micro-commercials-accidental-or-deliberate/759444/17 "2016-07-11T20:50:29Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Blipverts. That is all. That’s why I only watch Blank Reg’s Big Time TV.