Showtime Spoils Dexter Finale During Unskippable Pre-Menu Promo

from the ***SPOILER-AL---never-mind dept

The best way to get people hooked on a TV series is to add a bit of suspense and a well-done storyline leading up to either a cliffhanger or a shocking resolution. Like movies and games, it's not much fun to plunge yourself into something whose ending has already been detailed by careless forum members, siblings or those jackasses/heroes (P.O.V.-dependent) doing a spoiler-heavy driveby.

Of all the entities you'd expect might possibly prematurely inform you of Goose's death/The Crying Game's penis/Snape kicking the oxygen habit, the last one on that list has got to be the unskippable ad playing on your newly purchased DVD:

I bought Dexter season 6 on Blu-ray because I'm the sort of dork who feels bad about piracy and still buys all my media.
Every time I put in a disk (not first watch, mind you, every... time... ) there is a 3 minute ad for Showtime that I can't skip and can't fast forward.

THEY SPOIL THE LAST 30 SECONDS OF THE FINAL EPISODE OF THE FREAKING SHOW IN THAT AD.
Guess that's what I get for giving them my stupid money instead of stealing... 0_o

***SPOILER ALERT***

Keep this up, Showtime (and assorted movie/game trailers), and you're going to find a whole lot more people shopping with these little things. Why?

BECAUSE PIRATES FIX* THAT BROKEN SHIT THAT YOU LITTER EVERY DVD WITH.

*Other services provided: removal of DRM, removal of region-specific coding, removal of price tag(s).

Do I really need to be reminded multiple times that every frickin' g-man in the US of A will be hounding my piratey footsteps the moment I burn off a copy of this disc? Do I really need to be reminded that, yes, this studio/channel produces a great number of other entertainments and would I mind terribly just taking a look at the extended, unskippable ad?

Nobody wants "unskippable" anything on media they've purchased. Gamers don't want unskippable cut scenes. Movie/TV fans don't want unskippable FBI/ICE/MPAA warnings and studio promos. Music fans don't have to deal with this. You don't fire up a CD and have to listen to Small Print Guy telling you that reproducing this track without the express consent, etc. etc. etc. Why does everyone else have to put up with it?

Try looking at it from your customers' point of view. They just want to watch the thing they actually paid for. In a day when infringement is blamed for shutting down the entire global economy, do you really think it's a good idea to a.) make paying customers sit through enough scary legal logos to fill an entire T-shirt, and b.) make paying customers regret their purchase even before the MANDATORY pre-menu promo is over?

If you answered "yes" to either of these questions, expect to find fewer and fewer people willing to give you their "stupid money" in exchange for your even stupider product.

Filed Under: dexter, showtime, spoilers, unskippable dvd ads

Did Showtime Benefit By Giving Away Free Content?

from the apparently dept

Here is yet another example of how "free" can co-exist with paid content, even when the content is basically identical.

Recently, Showtime made the season premiers of their hit shows DEXTER and CALIFORNICATION on YouTube for anyone to watch for free.  So, did this gut their numbers when the shows aired on their subscription-only, kind of expensive if you ask me, premium cable network?

Both Dexter and Californication scored some huge opening numbers last Sunday with Dexter setting a new opening record for the cable network.

More than 1.5 million sets of eyeballs tuned to the season four opener for Dexter and 821,000 stayed to watch the opener for Californication. That's 3 million single eyeballs for Dexter and more than 1.6 million for Californication.

Guess not.

Crossposted from MyMediaMusings

Filed Under: californication, content, dexter, free, showtime, tv