SAY WHEN
How much is too many?
We often have to make a decision with that in mind and we often arrive at the same conclusion - it varies with the nature of the individual concerned.
There is, for example, no hard and fast regulation which determines how much time should be spent airing commercials on the average television show. That number which seems to be the absolute upper limit to some people and drives them wild, may, to another viewer, be less than offensive – even commendable.
Some viewers actually like to see the commercials and some prefer them to the content of the show they are “stuck with” for a half-hour or hour segment. It never occurs to them to either turn the TV set off or to change to another channel, because they feel if they do change they will end up with more of the same. With such TV viewers, once a TV set is turned “on” it cannot be turned “off”. TV is only social life they experience. One does not ,simply, discard it. One learns to “make do” with disruptive conditions which are bound to come along in any association.
The latest studies are said to say we use nineteen minutes out of every hour for commercial on night time shows and twenty-one minutes for daytime formats. Although the survey did not say so, I think they must combine the two limitations for movie re-runs.
Some protester types like to rave and rant on this “too many commercials” theme, and just anyone has, a one time or another, thought about seeing a show favoring program over “a word from”.
This foolish game is being played in the wrong court.
It is the program producers, not the viewers, who should be taking all of this commercial commotion to heart. If they keep on pushing the envelope, the whole thing is going to blow up in their prosperous face! They should, by this time, know how a goose, laying golden eggs , can be killed and what the consequences might be for them.
At random, I counted the number of commercials in a “break”.There were twelve of them. I fail to see how any of the sponsors profited from their brief and confused “message” jammed in with so many others. I find I don't recall the content of any of them. Local stations will tell, you it is the networks which do the overloading on commercials;the networks will tell you it is the cable stations and , since our “local” TV station depends upon cable for seventy-five per cent of its viewers we end up with neat “round robin” in which no one is “guilty.” The need to run and rerun the same spot, even minutes apart, is another killer.
One of these fine days business men and women will start to demand that their “spots” be presented to best advantage and not sandwiched in as a layer in a whole-arm “Dagwood” special. The glamor is gone from TV selling. It is routine now and if it is to continue to be lucrative it had better shape up and face reality.
A.L.M. February 11, 2003 [c531wds]
