Forced To Watch Commercials? What A Concept!
from the the-death-of-captive-audience-advertising dept
We've been pointing out that the concept of captive audience advertising is dead for a while now, but some marketers still haven't quite figured it out. Steve Outing from E-Media Tidbits seems surprised to realize that one of the first times his young daughter has been forced to sit through advertising was when he took her to a movie theater -- and paid $9 per ticket to experience the wonder of forced advertising. At home, the family skips commercials with their TiVo. In the car, they listen to commercial free stations on their satellite radio. Obviously, commercials before movies are a well-known phenomenon that appear to piss off plenty of people. However, it's interesting to note that it's one of the few places where captive audience advertising still functions. Of course, with some movie theaters finally realizing that forcing people to sit through ads in cramped, noisy conditions isn't always a great idea, perhaps this trend will finally start to go away as well. Still, it does seem like there are tradeoffs. Using a TiVo or getting satellite radio costs money both in an upfront fee and a subscription fee. So, really, the "cost" of being forced to watch commercials is moved elsewhere.
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Why I rarly go
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Re: Why I rarly go
try leaving your house at the movie start time, I find I arrive just in time for the movie to start.
If they actually started the movies on time, half the movies goers in my town would miss the first 10 minutes.
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Re: Why I rarly go
Sure, sometimes you miss the starting few minutes, and some folks will be slightly annoyed at guys like me trying to find a good seat in the dark, but to me it's worth it!
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No Subject Given
Anyway. I'd also like to point out that Tivo, sattelite radio, and the movie theatre all represent the *same* business model where the customer gets to pay for the option to not see commercials. The only difference is that in recent years, the greedy movie theatres decided they could get away with forcing ads on their patrons. That worked for a while, but now they're seeing the backlash and don't seem to have a clue what the problem is. .... I guess the movie business doesn't read Techdirt comments, either.
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Re: No Subject Given
Advertising is in the form of those little animated icons on the lower right corner of your screen. That IS advertising. And it reduces the perceived value of my monthly cable bill. Starz/Encore are the current biggest violators.
I haven't gone to a theater for so long I don't remember. And for exactly the same reason. With the ticket costs hitting $10, the DVD cost is nearly equal, or as is usually the case, I just wait until it shows up on premium cable (not PPV).
I hated it when AMC got advertising. I just hope and pray I'm dead before TCM does.
Norm
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