Netflix saves children from 150 hours of commercials annually | Hacker News Reader

Netflix saves children from 150 hours of commercials annually

exstreamist.com

This is a very good thing... Given that how susceptible we all are to commercials, children are particularly trusting of commercial information. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day..." "You need milk to grow, and build strong bones and muscles..." Not to mention ads for toys, candy, fast food, etc.

Although I'm skeptical about the amount of TV that everyone watches (myself included), having mostly ad-free sources of entertainment for children is a great option imho. And by mostly, I'm meaning product placements, and products based on a given title itself.

Very naive. Commercials won't go away, they will be embeeded within the content. Product placement, paid sponserships, influencers.

You will always get ads so long as it remains profitable.

There are some workarounds. There are old shows, where the product placements are no longer relevant. "Mom! The Shadow says we should buy Blue Coal." (Yes, that's a radio show; how about the Zima sign in a Babylon 5 episode?)

Or old shows which were funded by other sources, like Fraggle Rock.

There are also foreign shows, like ones from the BBC, which aren't allowed to use product placement, or where the products aren't available local.

That said, most kids want to watch what their friends watch. I doubt "The Vicar of Dibley" will be popular among US kids, making my proposal mostly theoretical.

After thinking about it for a bit, if such workarounds prove popular, the provider will likely start inserting product placement into the shows digitally, after the fact. So, umm, nevermind.

It's a tremendous pity that American children don't have easy access to BBC children's programmes. It's not just about advertising and product placement; the BBC has a strict public service remit. This commitment to public service is especially strong for children's programming.

The difference in quality and tone is absolutely extraordinary, because entertainment is only part of the remit. Serious drama and factual programmes are a vital part of the schedule. Perhaps the clearest example is Newsround, the BBC's news bulletin for children. The programme includes the usual celebrity gossip and entertainment news, but it also explains complex and difficult topics.

Today's headline stories on Newsround include the Juno probe, hurricane Hermine and the anniversary of the Great Fire of London. Newsround has covered the Syria conflict and the refugee crisis in detail. Enormous care is taken to communicate the seriousness of these issues without causing undue fear or distress.

There are some things that only a publicly-funded broadcaster can achieve. I can't imagine that a commercial children's channel would commission a drama set in a Victorian orphanage (Hetty Feather), a documentary strand about the working world (All Over the Workplace) or a weekly book club. The BBC still upholds the Reithian values - to educate, inform and entertain.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/shows https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsround http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/regulat...

> how about the Zima sign in a Babylon 5 episode?

Seeing the Zima sign up in the Zócalo always makes me laugh.

Apparently it was not product placement, but meant for laughter. I thought it was placement when I saw it.

My suspension of disbelief is blown every single time I see a laptop with its logo removed, de-badged car, fake name substituted for a real store or news outlet, etc.

It's tacky when they start taking about the benefits of some product, or use something inappropriate to the context, but I want to see actual products (appropriate to the period, location, characters, socioeconomic status, etc) because the alternative is so bad.

You're making the best case for piracy, which is still the superior way to watch television currently. I've been a cord-cutter since 2002, and my children have seen remarkably few advertisements in their lives. Combined with identifying embedded advertisements like you described, I've been able to raise media-savvy children thanks to piracy's superior experience.

That's probably good - unless all the advertising money goes to comparatively hidden ad formats as native ads or stuff like product placement.

Because if ads were not to disappear, I wouldn't know whether I'd necessarily prefer hidden formats.

It's a great point, but consider that most of the shows for kids are just ads for the toys they'll see in the toy shop.

... and then Ashton Kutcher makes absolutely sure you can see the Muscle Milk logo every episode of The Ranch.

s/Netflix/BBC/

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