TV Credits - new data devlivery format?

[bcullman]

I have this theory about a new TV credits data format, but have nothing to back it up except the following observations. Can anyone back up these up?

When I was a kid, a television show would run credits at the end of the show, un altered by the network.

Eventually it it seemed that the network realized that they were losing money by showing these credits as they took time away from them advertisiing products. So they sped them up to get them over faster. Valid observation?

Eventually, this was still too much time away from advertising, so in the last 10 or so years, network would compress the video feed (vertically and horizontally) that contained the credits from a television program so that they could squeeze in video of upcoming programs or advertisments. They have gotten fancier over the years, but the end result is that credit information is contained in the original video feed from the television program authors, and so compressing it caused the credits to be more difficult to read, especially if they were overly stylized text to begin with. Valid observation?

Recently (last year or so) I have noticed that credit infomation is no longer compessed looking. In fact, it tends to look disjointed from the program. My thoery is this: These days, television credit information is delivered as text (perhaps even xml) that can be displayed on screen however the broadcaster chooses which allows for maximum credit readability, and maximum manipulation by the broadcaster. Valid observation? If so, what is this new technology called?

[Schnitte]

@bcullman

Eventually it it seemed that the network realized that they were losing money by showing these credits as they took time away from them advertisiing products. So they sped them up to get them over faster. Valid observation?

I observed this as well, but I don’t think it’s just losing times that could be used for commercials. It’s also, probably even more, the risk of losing audience. Most people get bored watching credits for minutes (you can observe that in theaters - as soon as the credits start running, half the audience will sping up and leave), so they switch to another channel. That’s what they want to avoid by speeding up the credits.

Eventually, this was still too much time away from advertising, so in the last 10 or so years, network would compress the video feed (vertically and horizontally) that contained the credits from a television program so that they could squeeze in video of upcoming programs or advertisments. They have gotten fancier over the years, but the end result is that credit information is contained in the original video feed from the television program authors, and so compressing it caused the credits to be more difficult to read, especially if they were overly stylized text to begin with. Valid observation?

I observed that too. I guess it’s for similar reasons: Saving time, and trying to keep the audience tuned so they stay on the channel for the next program.

Recently (last year or so) I have noticed that credit infomation is no longer compessed looking. In fact, it tends to look disjointed from the program. My thoery is this: These days, television credit information is delivered as text (perhaps even xml) that can be displayed on screen however the broadcaster chooses which allows for maximum credit readability, and maximum manipulation by the broadcaster. Valid observation? If so, what is this new technology called?

I don’t have a WAG handy for this, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a concession to the station’s wish for manipulation. Depending on the way and style the credits are superimposed over the picture, it can very well look disjointed and still come fresh and unaltered from the network.

Maybe empirical text would be desirable here: Watching a syndicated show on different stations and comparing the credits. As we don’t have the network system of television business here, I’m not of help unfortunately.