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by jmduke 4828 days ago
The argument of "I paid for it so I can pirate it" is especially funny when coupled with "Too many ads!"

When you watch a show on cable, you're not just paying with your subscription but with your eyeballs. Advertisements, shockingly, aren't designed merely to irritate the viewer but to bring in more revenues.

(What do you think is going to happen when Sky realizes that their viewership is down even if their membership is stable?)
2 comments
laumars 4828 days ago
You do realise that Sky offers a number of services that allow viewers to skip those adds entirely: fast forwarding in a a few different modes (live buffers or previously recorded shows like any conventional DVR) as well as advertless shows on Anytime?

Barring the odd show that demands real-time viewing (eg sports matches) most people I know deliberately watch their shows 15/20 minutes later from the Sky+ DVR just fast forward adverts.

However even without such features, many people just channel hop or walk out of the room to make a cup of tea / go to the toilet.

Then to top all that off, most people have become desensitised to adverts on TV; we avoid making purchasing decisions based upon then and even learn to block adverts out entirely.

The practical upshot of all this is adverts on TV have now become about as effective a marketing tool as ads on the internet.

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sp332 4828 days ago
That's addressed in the article.

And Sky get this. If you wait another 24 hours, the show appears on “Sky Anytime”, and you can watch it with no adverts and at any time you please. The adverts are an additional tax on the consumer for having the audacity to watch the programme when Sky decides.

Are you playing by the rules? Yes? Are you paying for the show? Yes. Are you watching it when we say? Yes? Are you watching it where we say you can? Yes? Good for you, here’s some adverts as a punishment.

And people wonder why that business model is failing…

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jmduke 4828 days ago
I read that. I was addressing this:

> The adverts are an additional tax on the consumer for having the audacity to watch the programme when Sky decides.

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