Startup Promises Cure For The Skipped Advertising Blues
from the the-magic-bullet dept
We can certainly understand the concern held by advertisers and TV broadcasters over DVRs, and their potential to bypass advertising. Still, the answer isn't to fight against this trend by holding back the technology, which is bound to be a losing battle, but to make the most out of it. One idea that's been thrown out there is inserting advertising when a user is fast-forwarding past the ads. The problem with that, as you might imagine, is that it has the potential to really irritate customers, though if the ads were made relevant and useful, it could be something worth exploring. The other thing that's clear is that content needs to be untethered from the channel itself. Redistributing a TV show using other methods, the web in particular, open up previously unavailable advertising opportunities. A new startup is looking to satisfy these things comprehensively, offering to insert ads while fast forwarding, as well as manage advertising inventory on the web. Creating one solution for managing all these disparate forms of advertising should be appealing to companies that are still trying to figure this stuff out. But the true challenge remains of turning advertising into useful, inviting content in its own right. If all they manage to do is find a way to irritate people in such a way that can't be skipped over, then it's bound to be a loser.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Not irritating consumers is not a factor in advertising, some ads are made deliberately annoying so people remember them. Like DRM, this is just another bad idea that will be force fed to consumers.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
The OP was just stating that some adverts such as the crazy frog are purposely annoying so as to be remembered. And you know what? It sadly works.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
That's Not Funny!
Is it even possible to make an interesting, compelling ad for a product or service?
Without a hardware restriction in place to enforce ad-watching and without a dependable mechanism to estimate the number of ads watched, I just don't see ad-support of content providing levels of compensation commensurate with today's.
In other words, prepare for a future with a lot more YouTube quality entertainment.
MjM
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Relevant and Useful
I understand the need for ads, except of course that I pay (through the nose) for comcast cable and would think that I am already supporting the station.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I know!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Man Laws
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Man Laws
I don't want to see even one yeast-infection cure or erectile dysfunction treatment!
MjM
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Irritating ads do get you noticed
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Irritating ads do get you noticed
those headon ads, while insanity-inspring, are rediculously effective.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
typo
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Buy my remote!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
You are all MORONS
Here is a simple equation no ads or skipped ads = higher fees from your service provider.
While I am no fan of ads and own a DVR I am smart enough to understand that if the world becomes an ad free environemnt we can expect our cable bills to triple as a direct result of the content owners mandating higher fees.
One more point, comparing YouTube to studio prodced content is pure sillyness. I like YT but you cant compare a short form, amateur website with netowrk programming.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: You are all MORONS
The decent and logical thing to do would be to realise that intrusive advertising has served its purpose and is no longer relative. If that means the cable companies are going to have to find new ways to supplement their income or - god forbid! - reduce it to something of a reasonable amount, well I for one won't cry over their bank balances
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Fuck Advertisements
No, we the consumer pay for that content. Where do you think advertising companies get *their* money from? From us. And by this I mean even people who do not watch the content that you're talking about. Regular consumers pay companies greater prices than would otherwise be warrented so that they can pay advertising companies to try to convince us what we should buy. It is the consumers who lose in the end by paying for this inefficient overhead of in effect deceiving themselves with advertising.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Close. But no.
Companies spend more on ads. If they did not have to pay for the ads, their profit would be higher. The price would not be one bit lower.
What do they teach in school nowadays?
In any case, since I have no Tivo, I have to ask, how long does it take to skip 30 secs of video? It seems to me with all the new fangled digital based technology and all, that should be frickin instantanious. I record TV show on a cheap ass computer, and I swear skipping through *any* numbers of minutes takes 0 seconds.
Finally, I should say "They should have outlawed the VCR right then!"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
cost of supply
In any gain of efficiency like this, of course part of the gain is going to be taken up by the company's profit. But part of the gain will also be taken up by the consumer in the form of lower prices. Would you like me to draw you a diagram?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
E-currency fx
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
stupid
and radio? my god radio is so freakin annoying I quit listening when all 12 of my presets were playing commercials.
frankly i have better things to do with my time than listen/watch some pop-garbage which is barely entertaining by itself, much less filled with 40% commercials.
Honsetly I have more fun playing in the dirt with a stick than watching TV or listening to the radio.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]