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Speaking of Simpson’s Halloween specials I couldn’t resist posting this. In an episode aired a few weeks ago, Marge gets sick of the Fox promos cluttering her screen and asks the very reasonable question ‘can’t anyone just watch the show they’re watching?’.
John, I enjoy the fact that you got that from a Canadian source (the ratings box with the partial maple leaf is to the top left).
What’s even more ironic is that this was broadcast on Global, which is, like Network Ten, owned by Canwest. Ahh, the ties that bond us.
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When I was in the US, I thought FOX was awful at doing In Programme Promotions, but I watched NBC HD, and OMG that things pop up every 5 mins randomly. You should see what they did a few weeks ‘green week’:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlJkGuaFEOw
NBC have turned their HD, from an almost graphicless channel into a Promotions junkyard.
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At some point in The Simpsons Movie, they put a Fox ticker at the bottom of the screen. It said something like: “Yes, we even advertise during our movies!”
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I did laugh at the ticker in the movie!
I love the way people are up in arms about UK channels having little tiny “coming up next” banners superimposed at the end of shows. It’s NOTHING compared to what US TV viewers have to put up with!
I remember being in the US and seeing now and next info, lottery updates, small trailers in the corner of the screen… I dunno how anyone gets anything watched over there
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Ten are pretty bad for it too, particularly how with end credits they divide the screen up like 3 ways for the original show, a trailer and a slide ad. And they also use a lot of obtrusive in-programme banners too. Nine and Seven aren’t too bad, they confine themselves to the odd coming up next ad during credits (which in Seven’s case are altered to be a standard red affair) and the odd in-programme banner.
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I agree with Nick about Ten. They used to make the credits so small (a quarter of their original size) that you can’t read them. I think now though they just squish it to the lower third of the screen (which in some ways is even more unreadable).
What I dislike about ads during credits too is the way that they have ads over the movie credits (which are scrolling upwards), yet they still squish them. Why can’t they just make the ads cover up half the screen without squishing the credits? You still would’t miss any of the credits this way, plus you would actually be able to read them if you wanted to.
And I really hate Seven’s use of generic credits (is that what they’re called? they’re the standard red credits in the lower lower part of the screen that Seven seems to use for a lot of its programming). Seven only use generic credits so they can put in ads during the credits time.
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lol product placement…but doesn’t FOX do it all the time?
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What annoyed and surprised me about Channel 7, when I recently watched it for the first time in 5 years was how in the first minute of every show they have a big banner announcing that it is ‘available in widescreen’ …but EVERY shw is in widescreen, which leads me to suspect that it is only there to enourage people to buy widescreen tvs…perhaps from one of their sponsors?
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There’s another reason I think for all the on-screen graphics: now that broadcast-quality digital recording is available to everyone, in-program ads also discourage viewers from recording the show to dvd to keep, making overpriced official dvds the only option.
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I am so glad the UK has relatively clutter free television, but it is creeping in, we now get a coming up next thing on some shows several times in a half hour slot. I agree that NBCHD’s on screen ads are annoying, I have seen them from downloads, ours are text only for now, having bionic woman on the screen during Heroes really annoyed me. Luckily some downloads are now coming from Global, which is quite tidy.
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Nice. Thanks for this. Is there an easy way to subscribe to comments here?
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