Comments on: Dollhouse & Sarah Connor Ratings Better Than We Think

By: The Friday Night Death Slot: Sarah Connor Chronicles & Dollhouse - Screen Rant

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 19:44:06 +0000

[...] have to wonder. When we previously reported that Dollhouse and TSCC had better time shifted ratings, it seemed like a hopeful glimmer of continuance. But is it [...]

By: David

David — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:31:12 +0000

If I, for one, was forced to watch a “picture in picture” ad in a show I was watching, I have no doubt that would lead to the end of my watching TV forever. I already get annoyed sometimes when the network insignia is really big and/or blocks out something.
It’s simply too distracting for me and takes me out of the “fantasy” of it.

For me, the point of watching any show (especially a “otherworldly” fictional-type one), is to get away from reality and immerse myself in something not real.

Any forced ad’s would take me out of that, and ruin the experience for me completely. Thus TV would lose it’s allure. And I’d have no choice but to go. It would no longer be meeting my needs.

p.s. I agree with the previous writers positions regarding the same commercials being shown again and again during a given hour (and perhaps even the NEXT hour!), I don’t need to see the same one again.

I sincerely believe that the advertisers have gotten lazy in an attempt to increase their profit margins. What is needed is for them to create more ads that are each a little bit different, (even for the same product), to provide more variety for the viewers, rather than just stuffing the same thing down our throats! It needn’t be SO expensive, just different.

By: JFitz

JFitz — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:28:14 +0000

Skipping commercials is nice especially when they show the same commercial every act break; if I saw it once I don’t need to see it again in the same hour, or in the same evening. If the commercial seems interesting, I’ll stop and look. Otherwise, what does it matter if I skip past a commercial that doesn’t really fit my demographic.

Additionally, can’t advertisers figure out how to key into smaller demographics. May some sci-fi themed commercials would attract the attention of the people watching a sci-fi show?

I bet the advertisers would get some excellent feedback if they sent their commercials to You-Tube (or something). Lot’s of hit’s, its good. Not so many, it probably sucked just as bad on free TV.

By: Mandarr

Mandarr — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:10:07 +0000

I often find myself stopping the ff button when I’m watching shows I’ve dvr’d as well. Especially movie trailers that I haven’t seen or funny looking stuff. I watch a lot of live tv as well though so it’s not like they still aren’t getting to catch my attention.

As for TSCC and Dollhouse. If I’m not doing something at that time I am watching those shows live. I was not that into Dollhouse from what I saw of the first episode, but the second show was cool. The third show kind of put me back to what I felt of the first show, but I’ll keep watching it to see if it gets better.

I like TSCC, but it is sort of weird how it’s not going to be tying in to any of the movies and be it’s own story. I’d like to see another season of it at least though.

By: Vic Holtreman

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:18:35 +0000

@steven the git

I sometimes do that myself. My old DirecTV box would skip in 30 second increments but my new one does a super fast forward in 30 second chunks so I can still see what I’m skipping. Sometimes something catches my eye and I’ll actually stop and watch it.

Vic

By: FIlm-Book dot Com

FIlm-Book dot Com — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:57:01 +0000

I’m glad the shows are doing ok. Maye TSCC will be around for another season or two.

By: steven the git

steven the git — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:08:42 +0000

I hate commercials but have to admit that when zapping through, now and then something will catch my eye and I’ll go back. Mind you, often it is stupid and I just zap on all the quicker.

Ads for tv shows and movies are the main things that make me stop.

But when a show I love stops to sell me stuff, if I can’t zap forward then I turn over.

Maybe you guys will have to set up your own BBC!

By: Bruce Simmons

Bruce Simmons — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:52:09 +0000

I hear ya. But I’m hard core. I don’t care what’s in the commercial. I’m not stopping for anything.

I’m telling ya, product placement or in picture ads are going to be hitting us so we can’t get away from them.

They’ve already tried this with NASCAR. Your race is in the left 2/3rds of the picture and the ad kicks in, race sound goes away and you hear ad, and have a tiny version of the thing in the right 1/3rd of the screen.

There’s not much else they can do in my opinion. Unless they jamn banners in the picture of our show. Well… at least we’ll get more play time from our shows.

(That’s my bright side for anything mode!)

By: ppnkof

ppnkof — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 06:37:28 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about this issue lately. Advertisers are either going to have to change their gameplan or find away to disable the FF feature. However, the truth of the matter is that commercials don’t all get skipped. Certainly while watching my DVR if there is something crazy I see in a commercial I’m FF’ing through, even for a split-second, I will go back and watch that commercial, and pay EXTRA attention to it. Commercials will now just have to learn to grab our attention in a millisecond rather than ten seconds. Sucks for them.