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This was the first time I've watched live broadcast US TV since leaving the country ten years ago. Are there any shows on, or is every channel besides PBS just
by ozbonus 6y ago
This was the first time I've watched live broadcast US TV since leaving the country ten years ago. Are there any shows on, or is every channel besides PBS just advertisements all day?
- aahhahahaaa 6y agoyeah holy crow it has gotten way worse? are episodes shorter or something? I think I just sat through 5 minutes of ads.
- kevin_thibedeau 6y agoHour shows are 40 minutes. Half hour are 18.
- applecrazy 6y agoHoly crap. Half-hour shows are basically YouTube videos in terms of length
- astura 6y agoAnd yet YouTube videos themselves are approximately 30% non-content. https://www.dictionary.com/e/pop-culture/the-wadsworth-constant/ https://www.dictionary.com/e/pop-culture/the-wadsworth-const...
- masklinn 6y ago> And yet YouTube videos themselves are approximately 30% non-content. That's "non-useful" content rather than "non-content", those 30% are intro and filler which you might also find in non-youtube content. And obviously it also depends strongly on what kind of content you're using youtube for. Skipping the first 30% of a recital is probably going to skip interesting content.
- ballenf 6y agoI really wish YT would drop the 10 minute cutoff for mid-roll ads. It's a destructive incentive to the platform. Let creators put ads wherever they want on whatever length video they want (within reason and with abuse checks). Then you won't get 7 minute videos with 3 minutes of added fluff just so they can be better monetized. And we can ignore creators who over-monetize if we want (or buy Premium or use adblocking).
- majewsky 6y ago> The Wadsworth Constant is the idea (and 2011 meme) that one can safely skip past the first 30 percent of any YouTube video without missing any important content. I heard about this a few months ago, and have since checked when the actual content starts in the videos I watch. I certainly can't agree with 30%, usually in 15-minute videos, the introduction is 1-2 minutes before they go into the meat. The bigger problem is all the filler, sponsorship breaks, "remember to ring the bell" etc., that occur at seemingly random points, though I don't think it adds up to 30% filler even if you count all that. Maybe I just skip over most of the garbage.
- Hamuko 6y agoDidn't it used to be like 22/44 or 24/48?
- Lammy 6y agoOne of my favorite “I wonder how many people got that?” jokes in Spongebob Squarepants is a reference to this: https://youtu.be/RUM-Qk4_KG4 https://youtu.be/RUM-Qk4_KG4 “Every eleven minutes” because each “half hour” episode is two separate segments totaling 22 minutes.
- masklinn 6y agoApparently it was 22/44 in 2013. By 2016, half-hour shows were already down to ~19mn. Broadcast was utterly unbearable when I visited the US 20 years back, I can't imagine watching it today.
- bane 6y agoTry listening to a music radio station sometime. I turned one on for the first time a 10 years a couple weeks ago and in a 45 minute drive heard approximately 2 songs. The entire rest was station identifiers and commercials.
- Ed314159 6y agoThe non-commercial band in the United States is 88-92FM. All the best (many college) stations will be in this band: KFJC, WFMU, KEXP... Radio is alive and well in the U.S., its just not commercial radio.
- adamweld 6y agoKEXP is amazing. Highly recommend people check them out (online at kexp.org if you're not in seattle).
- m0xte 6y agoThey have some good stuff on YouTube as well.
- dreamcompiler 6y agoAgreed and thanks for the reminder. I used to listen to KEXP online even when I lived in Seattle. Phones are more common than radios these days.
- Gaelan 6y agoHuh. KUOW, (one of) Seattle’s NPR stations, is on 94.9. Wonder what the story there is
- cowsandmilk 6y agoThe band was donated to them by KING
- dacohenii 6y ago88.1-91.9 MHz is reserved for noncommercial educational (NCE) stations, so only they can use those frequencies. However, there's nothing that disallows NCE stations from operating on unrestricted frequencies (so long as they are licensed, of course). It's not very common, though, because radio spectrum is expensive. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-commercial_educational_station#Reserved_channels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-commercial_educational_sta...
- LeoPanthera 6y agoAt the time you posted this, it was late evening / overnight. Most programming is on earlier.
- mysterydip 6y agoEven PBS has ads nowadays. At the beginning of a show, "sesame street was brought to you today by support from viewers like you, and..." (ad for abcmouse, some minivan, etc plays)
- jlcummings 6y agoThe advertisers (?) are different, but more than 35 (!) years ago, I remember the same format, just different sponsors for different programming.
- nojito 6y agoPBS has always been like that. That's how public broadcasting works.
- briandear 6y agoIt’s “ad free” yet “sponsors” still get their name on the air. How is that not advertising?
- anonymfus 6y agoBecause sponsor does not control the message?
- skissane 6y ago> That's how public broadcasting works. That’s how public broadcasting works in the US. A number of other countries manage to have public broadcasting without any private advertisements or sponsorship. (For example, Australia’s ABC.)
- mysterydip 6y agoNo, it used to be where they would mention the name of the company on a still image and a quick blurb, like the other poster's youtube link. Now the company gets a whole 30 second ad like any other channel.
- compsciphd 6y ago
- neuralRiot 6y agoI was thinking the same just days ago after watching a live broadcast since the shutting down of analog TV (never bothered to install an antenna even after buying a new HD TV) i said to myself, no wonder cord cutting is a thing, for every 2 minutes of content you get 15 of mind numbing ads.