TV Commercial
Toronto. I think the end of Television is coming even faster these days. My wife and I often watch old comedies with 1.5 to 2 minute long commercial breaks. A couple of years ago, my daughter loaned me some 30 Rock DVDs. It was noted on the case that each half hour segment was actually 23 minutes long – say 46 minutes of show and 14 minutes of advertisements if you chose to view the shows on TV.
Earlier this spring, I was surprised to discover that I could leave my living room during commercials and still get back before they finished. So I timed them. Yep, they were now 3 minutes long.
This week, we saw the first fall sessions of new programs/seasons. You guessed it! Commercial breaks are now slightly over 4 minutes long including a “brought to you by…” commercial at the very end! Between the (unannounced) extended commercials, the incessant banners along the bottom of the screen during programs, and indifferent scripts, TV is fast, very fast, becoming a useless exercise.
Even TV news is a waste of time – unless you like irrelevant American video bites, lengthy sports coverage (very wide and generally very shallow), lengthy teasers on the weather, and a few local/national headlines plus a human interest story or two, all thrown in in between commercial “breaks”.
It is no wonder my children, like everyone their age and younger, have abandoned cable and traditional TV for streaming and the internet.
