TV Advertising

The image above was captured from last Sunday’s episode of Suburgatory on GO! during which an on screen ad appeared straight after the second ad break of the show about 12 minutes from starting time.

On screen ads – other than those promoting up and coming programming – are usually only found in sports broadcasts.

Is this a sign of things to come – more on screen clutter with ads for products as well as for shows?

It’s bad enough at times with programming on screen ads which, in some cases, take up alot of the screen space. But to have product or sponsor ads as well, outside of the allotted ad breaks could become too much to bear.

The on screen ads do get around those fast forwarding through ads when playing back a recorded show. As the popularity of time shifted viewing grows, on screen ads may become more common in shows.

Here’s a bit of NSFW fun.  Red Bull have produced some weird and wonderful TV commercials over the years. Remember the one where a man flies up and let’s a bird have it from above?

Well, not surprisingly some of those ads have drawn a number of complaints which resulted in them being taken off air. Here are a selection which people have referred to as: ‘disgusting’, ‘repulsive’ and ‘should be banned’ ads… 

There has got to be some rule about last minute programming changes.

When I say last minute, I mean those that affect programming within a few days or even up to a week from the day the programming change or amendment is issued.

Three recent examples of last minute programming changes come to mind that emphasise why there needs to be a rule in place to govern them.

1. Last week. GO decides to completely change their Thursday night line up. They do so on the Wednesday. The new changes mean that two episodes of Big Bang Theory air from 7.30 and a movie from 8.30. Programming replaced includes a repeats of Wipeout USA and Seinfeld, as well as first run Nikita at 9.30. At the same time, GO changes Friday night to include four episodes of The Big Bang Theory. No reason for the changes, other than to use Big Bang to help lift ratings for GO. EPGs were updated in time.

2. Last Friday, around 3pm. Seven issues an amendment that sees new travel show High Road, Low Road replaced with episode of Medical Emergency. The change takes effect immediately, meaning that High Road, Low Road for the following Saturday Dec 4, 7pm, was not to air. The EPGs for Seven Sydney and Prime Newcastle were updated, but the EPG that Foxtel had for Seven was not. Confusion reigns amongst viewers as to what will be on Seven at 7pm that night.

3. Today. Cricket finishes early. So Nine restores normal programming. Fair enough – there should always be back up programming when live sport like cricket cannot be shown. BUT – the normal programming also included the next episode of Days of Our Lives. The next episode was not due to air until the next day – tomorrow. Fans of the show (and fans of Days can be fanatical!) would not possibly have known that the episode would have been on today unless they were already watching the cricket on Nine and saw that it finished early.

Many fans of Days of Our Lives who may record it while they are at work will be surprised to see, that when they watch the episode tomorrow, they will have completely missed one – because they would NOT HAVE KNOWN one was aired instead of the cricket. How possibly would they be able to find out?

At least fans of The View and Ellen get them on GEM (or Pay TV) – but putting an episode of a serial soapie on without fans knowing is crazy. Surely Nine could have put something else at 2pm? It’s just for one day. Maybe a fan of the show can tell us what they think of Nine airing the next episode rather than waiting for when it was scheduled.

In all of these example, users of printed TV guides would have been left in the dark completely.

So here are some rules I have though of that should govern last minute programming changes.

No programming changes should ever be made for less than 7 days in advance without good reason. Allowable reasons for last minute programming changes include:

1. Live sport finishes late. All subsequent programming should then play as close to its scheduled time as possible. If the sport overrun completely takes over the full length of a show that was to follow, then that show just is not seen at all.

2. Live sport finishes early or is not played: There has to be back up programming available – but the back up programming should not include a first run serialised show where viewers who are not aware of the sport not being shown will miss out on an episode and therefore potentially important parts of the plot. Back up programming should be chosen in such a way that those unaware are not missing out on anything significant. Also – if live sport finishes early, subsquent programming CANNOT be allowed to start ealry. FIll in programming must be inserted.

3. Big news day / extended news: Same rules for late running sport in point 1.

4. Big news day – Special: Networks are able to air a special at the last minute based on the events of the day should the importance warrant it. Examples include the recent royal wedding announcement, natural disaster specials and the like. The special should replace the program scheduled at the time it goes to air, while all other programming remains at its normal time.

5. Tributes. Often when a well known actor passes away, networks will opt to show tribute movies or specials. This is both fair enough and expected by the audience. Leslie Nielsen, of course, is a recent example of this.

6. Sudden removal of offensive program. A network may opt to remove a program at the last minute if it is deemed unsuitable to air or offensive. Although – these sorts of decisions should be made well before the seven day no change deadline.

7. Technical issues. In this day and age, technical issues hardly ever prevent programming going to air, but in the event issues arise, networks have to adjust around them accordingly. But they also should inform viewers as to what has happened using announcements or on screen messages. This seems to have happened to Gem the other day with an episode of Law and Order becoming a different episode ten minutes in.

8. Any subsequent programming that may be affected by the above points – such as serialised programs – is allowed to be adjusted accordingly. Sometimes, double episodes of a nightly show may air the next day following a big news day that prevented an episode from being aired. Often happens with Home and Away on Seven due to AFL games or extended news coverage.

Adherence to these sorts of guidelines would reduce viewer confusion and help stable programming schedules to be maintained. Viewers would not feel like they are being hard done by as a result of changes. The majority of last minute changes are for the sole purpose of trying to improve ratings. While share holders and advertisers may understand and accept that point, the average viewer does not – and at the end of the day, it is these very viewers that watch TV and chose to spend money with advertisers they are introduced to. Make too many changes, mess too much with the viewers, and they will start tuning out.

TV is like any business – the viewers are the customers that drive their income via ratings and advertisers paying for time based on those ratings. Once you lose a viewer or customer, it is very, very hard to get them back. In an era where we have more TV and entertainment options than ever before – shouldn’t there be more consideration for the viewer now? Not less?

OK – we all know we are in the middle of an election campaign – but seriously – do we really need so many of the same ad over the one night?

While I can’t speak for other markets, in Sydney last night (Sunday Aug 8th), the Labor ad telling us “don’t risk it” in relation to voting for Tony Abbott was played in just about every ad break from 6pm to 9.30pm over all three commercial channels. Some ad breaks featured two of the same ad, and then, when coupled with the union based ads about “work choices” it was three in the same ad break.

At our house, we generally avoid watching free to air live to avoid the need to see all the ads and so more shows can be watched in one night. Sometimes though – when we get to Sunday night – there’s nothing left to watch from the previous week so we end up having to watch some of Sunday nights’ shows live.

Our viewing for the night from 6pm included about an hour of Seven, over an hour of Nine and two and a half hours of Ten. Also watched Sky news briefly.

During all this viewing, the “Don’t risk it” ad was seen more than we could care to count. Even when not watching live, the ad clearly stood out during fast forwarding of ad breaks. Even watching just a few minutes of Sky News was no escape for the “Don’t risk it” ad.

Now I have to ask – who do they think is going to be swayed by having the ad on that often? Sure – there are undecided voters out there, but honestly – are any of them going to suddenly change their mind because they see one political party dominate the advertising over – not only their opposition but – all other advertised brands as well?

If anything – it should turn people off. Prime time TV ads on a Sunday night can’t be cheap. Think of where else this money could be spent – how many people the money could go towards helping.

Sure – fair enough for the parties to advertise to get your vote, but the same ad over and over is well and truly over kill and a gross waste of OUR money.

Can’t wait for the advertising black out next week. In the meantime, no more live TV for now!

The Ten network has indicated that it will cease providing Free TV with ad revenue data due to “serious concerns” the network has with the accuracy of the metropolitan data being released with data released showing an increase to ad revenues for the TV industry.

Ten’s announcement comes as the TV industry body released ad revenue figures for the first half of the year which show that total revenue for the five major cities was $1.4 billion, representing a growth of 18.9% year on year.

In terms of total network ad revenue share, Seven finished on top with 37.9%, Nine second at 33.2% and Ten third 28.9%.

In s statement released by Ten soon after the figures were released, the network voiced concerns over the metro data, which Free TV collates from the networks’ own numbers.

“Network Ten advised it held serious concerns regarding the accuracy of both the composition and allocation of metropolitan commercial television revenue released by Free TV today for the
six months to 30 June 2010.

“As a consequence, Network Ten today formally advised Free TV that it will no longer participate in the collation of the Free TV commercial TV advertising revenue data.”

It appears Ten do not have an issue with Free TV and their collation of data, but does have a problem with the way the competitors compile the data, including the specific time periods adhered to.

It is not clear what impact Ten’s decision will have on Free TV.

Source: B&T Today

This ad aired on Arena this morning. Thought it was a joke at the time, but upon checking the website shown at the end of the ad, it is real! Believe it or not!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kExGshG3mT0

If there were awards for infomercials or ads for products that noone would ever buy in their right mind, this would win hands down.

Update – as it turns out, this and a few other equally as stupid products are all part of a campaign for Dunlop Volleys. You cannot actually order the products but you can go into the draw to “win” one of each.

A very unique, clever and funny advertisign campaign, taking the mickey out of those usually unbelievable informercial style ads seen on TYV mostly outside of prime time.

Too Many Ads?

In what most of us already would have guessed, a Sunday Herald Sun survey of commercial TV programming for shows aired between 7 and 10pm have found that there are more ads then there is supposed to be.

ACMA – the Australian Communications and Media Authority who regulate Australian TV and media- sets the limit of ads between 6pm and midnight at 13 minutes per hour.

But in the survey that covered 20 top prime time shows, all were found to have more ads then they are supposed to, some by as much as six minutes. As prime time advertising on free to air TV can cost as much as $40,000 per hour, getting a few more ads in can be quite lucrative for the networks.

In some cases, actual program content in between ad breaks is as short as four minutes while ad breaks can be up as long as four minutes as well. With many shows now being ad free for the first twenty minutes (to get us in) that leaves the remainder of many shows equally split for time between ads and content.

A proposed code of practice is being developed by industry body, Free TV Australia. It is understood to include a plan to exclude station promotions as commercial advertising.

Broadcasters need to work hard to achieve a balance between the interests of viewers and advertisers.