Who can think of a new paradigm to replace television commercials?

Cafe Society
21

With the exception of FairyChatMom :slight_smile: , There is a shift in how home entertainment is viewed. With the exception of live events (read: sports) people don’t want to be forced to watch something on a schedule. I get great antenna reception (Yes, I’m a cord cutter), but I rarely watch network TV. Even then it’s only if I’m surfing. I can’t think of a single show I’ve watched since The Good Wife ended where I would intentionally tune in for a specific show. Even then it just reminded me how frustrating it is when a sporting event ran long and then delayed the start of my show.

Regarding the OP’s question. Product placement is one choice but I can’t imagine that pays the bills. Maybe something similar to how David Letterman (I think?) did an entire show commercial free. He still had commercials, he just didn’t break for them. As I recall, either they streamed across the bottom or just took a few seconds to talk about a sponsor.

Hulu, USA Network and others just break for commercials like regular broadcast tv does; except with two distinct advantages. 1) There’s a timer showing how much time is left before the show resumes broadcasting, and 2) I’m still enjoying the show itself on MY schedule.

22

Um, a lot of people DVR sports.

Mrs. FtG does. Usually she watches the game the next morning since they often end too late for her. Even for a day game, she lets it record for a while before starting to watch so she can skip commercials.

Once you get a bit used to the concept of not watching a game live, you can quickly switch over to full time watching recordings. It’s a very low psychological barrier.

Sports are no longer considered “DVR proof” and advertisers are changing the strategy accordingly.