Cable TV is speeding up its shows slightly to show you more ads

[ahhming]

The Wall Street Journal reports that many networks are desperately trying to increase the number of commercials you watch per hour, sometimes resorting to subtly speeding up older shows and reruns in an effort to recapture the revenue from tanking ratings.


The  Wall Street Journal also  notes that TBS used compression technology to speed up the Wizard of Oz during its airing last November, causing pop-culture writer Stephen Cox to notice that the munchkins' voices were pitched higher than normal. TBS, TNT, and TV Land have also sped up shows including Seinfeld and Friends.
 

Speeding up shows isn't the only way networks are trying to fit in ad time. On TNT, reruns of Law and Order have truncated opening credits—once a minute and 45 seconds long, the introduction is now just 24 seconds. “It feels wrong,” Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman told the Journal about the show's “squashed” opening and closing credits. “It is not how it was shot, written, or imagined. It wasn’t meant to be that way, so don’t make it that way."

 

 

 

lucky for me i dont watch tv.

 

source:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/cable-tv-shows-are-sped-up-to-squeeze-in-more-ads-1424301320

 

http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/02/cable-tv-is-speeding-up-its-shows-slightly-to-show-you-more-ads/

[Victorious Secret]

Nonsense like ads is why I pay for my cable channels that show the shows I like watching, then promptly just download 720p versions later.

 

I despise commercials. 

[Darkman]

We need adblock for TVs.

[SirNumbers]

We need adblock for TVs.

But then itll just be blank since its live

[shujin]

We need adblock for TVs.

well even without the ads the show will still be speed up www

[Darkman]

But then itll just be blank since its live

Show slideshows or videos of cats doing stuff. Better than anything else.

[Toddwjp]

people arent watching tv because we treat them like shit and show too many ads so we getting less money, lets solve this with more ads

[Spideybro]

people arent watching tv because we treat them like shit and show too many ads so we getting less money, lets solve this with more ads

Hey, either cable companies get the picture and fix it or they die a slow and agonizing death. I and many others are ditching cable for other options. 

[Toddwjp]

Hey, either cable companies get the picture and fix it or they die a slow and agonizing death. I and many others are ditching cable for other options. 

 

i really hope they die

[Arty]

Pay For Cable

Still Get Ads

Bruh

[The_Evenger]

it's a good thing I don't watch TV!

 

but seriously, scumbags.

[SpaceCore]

I'll take lower quality (720p instead of 1080p) if there are no ads. Thats why I dl my shows and leave my TV as background noise.

[hiyayhi]

Aaaaaand THIS is the reason why I don't use a TV to watch TV shows. Popcorn time is my friend.

[ComradeHX]

I'll take lower quality (720p instead of 1080p) if there are no ads. Thats why I dl my shows and leave my TV as background noise.

You want lower quality?

Cable TV: *Shows show in 720p on topleft corner, leaves rest of 1080p screen for various adds.*

[DuckDodgers]

Cheap noobs. They forgot to adjust the pitch compensation for the compressed audio track. I actually used to do this "hack" back in the day, when YouTube had a low limit on video length for regular users, so I could fit a 16~17 minute clip into the 15 min cap, without cutting it out into segments.

Of course, above certain threshold of time compression it becomes rather obvious and silly, but a 5% squeeze would give an extra 3 minutes of ad space in a standard 60 min TV episode.

[bcredeur97]

people complain about ads all the time and then they go sit in front of the TV for hours... watching Ads

 

TV needs to just die. No point in paying for it anymore when there is sooo much advertising. Shows arent as good as they used to be anyway.

[Trik'Stari]

I'm still not watching the commercials, I'm just going to make a video of myself getting up and leaving the room when the commercials come on, and mail it to them.

 

 

I hope they weep

[Kyuubixchidori]

wait, so ratings tank, so the solution is to make it worse?

 

oh, people cant afford taxes, and we are not getting enough money, the solution is clearly more taxes.

 

 

The issue I have with to many ads on tv is, Already paying 70$ a month. But then again, theres that massive amount of content that needs to be paid somehow. 

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Funny that.  Some years ago there was a bit of controversy over here about how they slowed movies down (so they could add an extra set of commercials in there). 

[Trik'Stari]

wait, so ratings tank, so the solution is to make it worse?

 

oh, people cant afford taxes, and we are not getting enough money, the solution is clearly more taxes.

 

 

The issue I have with to many ads on tv is, Already paying 70$ a month. But then again, theres that massive amount of content that needs to be paid somehow. 

^this.

 

Capitalists have forgotten that you don't increase profits by fucking the customer, you do it by giving them good service and value for their money.

[Kyuubixchidori]

^this.

 

Capitalists have forgotten that you don't increase profits by fucking the customer, you do it by giving them good service and value for their money.

exactly. Like I understand we need some ads, otherwise itd cost a ridiclous amount of money to be able to get access to so many channels. 

 

but Have to find a balance. If it pissses off customers to the point of switching or not watching. thats a shame. the fact that I have a cable sub, yet its easier and more convient to just pirate whatever I want to watch, thats when something is wrong

[Kherm]

This is especially devastating to me, because every night, every single person in Philadelphia tunes in and watches Action News (Since 1971). They have the best news theme ever, (In 1997 the tried to change it by spending 20k on a new theme, it lasted 1 week) but as of late the theme keeps getting shorter and shorter

 

Glorious News Theme:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSIOzNmg9kI

[DeViLzzz]

What is cable tv?

[Darkman]

its called netflix.

But my internet is too bad...

[flibberdipper]

Wow.