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Comment by wccrawford | Hacker News Reader

Actually, they aren't adding -more- commercials, they're just moving them around. Instead of an almost 8 minute commercial break after a show, it'll happen in 4 shorter segments during the show.

As the article says, this is to combat the mass exodus that occurs after each show, which makes it hard to interest the viewers in the next show.

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You really think that they will stick to "short" segments?

Or do you think there is going to be mission creep just like there used to be one commercial before PBS Newshour but now it goes on for like 4-5 of them?

So get people used to the 4 segments (ie. this report about the new oil spill brought to you by Chevron) then over time claim budget has doubled and double/triple the number of commercials?

I'm not sold on the reasoning "to build an audience for the show that follows". We are moving towards an age of "on demand" programming where viewers choose what they want to watch when they want to watch. This is a misguided attempt to hook the viewer onto the next show, at the expense of interrupting the current show.

I had the same gut reaction when I saw the headline, but concur -- the article makes it clear that this is a move to adjust when the same material is presented, not the introduction of new advertisements in the program.

As a consumer of such things I certainly like the uninterrupted viewing, but I'll be the first to admit that I'm not likely to sit around for the content at the end.

It's a foot-in-the-door approach. Once you get people used to four program break-in, you just add more commercials to each break.

Anyone that doesn't think that will happen over time is naive.

But anyone who is sure it will happen is a cynic ;)

This seems to be a sensible idea. The long break in between shows causes me to turn the channel when one ends.

The average hour-long program is 40-45 minutes once all the commercials are removed. Think about that, up to 1/3 of scheduled show is dedicated to advertising. I'm sure if you go back 10-15 years it was 1/4 and before that it was 1/5. This doesn't even count the inshow advertising that goes on.

It seems to be a sensible idea, I agree. But like government projects, sensible ideas tend to metastasize.

I disagree. Speaking of PBS Nova specifically, the shows are 56 minutes (give or take 3min) long once commercials are removed. I know this because I download my media and the commercials are removed for me so all I do to see how long a show is, is look at the remaining-time in VLC.

I wasn't speaking of PBS, but of normal network television. PBS shows usually run up to the mark or just a few minutes short to allow local stations to run their own advertising.

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