My million dollar idea...
I think it’s safe to say it takes 20-30 seconds to skip through a 2 or 3 minute commercial break…
What if the network was able to convey this information to tivo – that is, tivo knows this commercial break is 2 minutes long, so when you push the skip button just once, it breaks in with a pre-stored 30 second advertisement tailored to your usage, and at the end of that one commercial you’re right back into your show at the end of the break.
They could track exactly how many people see the ad, and charge the advertiser at the equivalent per-viewer rate for all the other ads in that commercial break… that is, if the other 10 commercials paid a total of 10 cents just for your eyeballs to see their ads, this one advertiser would pay 10 cents for you to see just their ad.
They wouldn’t even have to tell tivo how long the break is, just insert markers at the start and stop of com breaks, and while tivo is playing your one ad it just seeks ahead for the ad stop. This would avoid any problems with timing at the local level, since shows are actually broadcast locally. (one of the channels on campus at penn state back in the day was an actual network feed for the local Fox affiliate… I think it was brought on campus for one of the classes or departments, to see how to edit and broadcast in the real world sort of thing, but all this channel did was play shows the day before they actually aired for the local channel to record for transmission the next day. The commercial breaks all had pauses a minute or two long of just blank screen, for the local to insert their own commercials.
We also got a raw comedy central feed on campus, which made for irritating commercials, too. All the breaks on com central (and, I’m guessing, other cable channels) are about half national and half local. The feed from CC fills the local half with ads for other cc shows, so if the local cable company doesn’t fill them in you end up with constant commercials for whatever new show the channel is trying to pump. At the time, it was strangers with candy, and I think one of the reasons I hated that show so much was that every half hour of comedy central including 4 minutes worth of the same 30 seconds of that show.
Well, that, and I don’t think it was a very good show any way.
What if the network was able to convey this information to tivo – that is, tivo knows this commercial break is 2 minutes long, so when you push the skip button just once, it breaks in with a pre-stored 30 second advertisement tailored to your usage, and at the end of that one commercial you’re right back into your show at the end of the break.
They could track exactly how many people see the ad, and charge the advertiser at the equivalent per-viewer rate for all the other ads in that commercial break… that is, if the other 10 commercials paid a total of 10 cents just for your eyeballs to see their ads, this one advertiser would pay 10 cents for you to see just their ad.
They wouldn’t even have to tell tivo how long the break is, just insert markers at the start and stop of com breaks, and while tivo is playing your one ad it just seeks ahead for the ad stop. This would avoid any problems with timing at the local level, since shows are actually broadcast locally. (one of the channels on campus at penn state back in the day was an actual network feed for the local Fox affiliate… I think it was brought on campus for one of the classes or departments, to see how to edit and broadcast in the real world sort of thing, but all this channel did was play shows the day before they actually aired for the local channel to record for transmission the next day. The commercial breaks all had pauses a minute or two long of just blank screen, for the local to insert their own commercials.
We also got a raw comedy central feed on campus, which made for irritating commercials, too. All the breaks on com central (and, I’m guessing, other cable channels) are about half national and half local. The feed from CC fills the local half with ads for other cc shows, so if the local cable company doesn’t fill them in you end up with constant commercials for whatever new show the channel is trying to pump. At the time, it was strangers with candy, and I think one of the reasons I hated that show so much was that every half hour of comedy central including 4 minutes worth of the same 30 seconds of that show.
Well, that, and I don’t think it was a very good show any way.
Labels: misc
posted by joe at 7:47 PM
0 comments
