I hate you NBC!

[jhal]

You can't escape them! Even History channel has the animated ones that take up a good percentage of the screen. I was watching it last night and some stupid animated martial arts character was doing his stuff advertising for a show. As mentioned, those squeezed credits that zoom up the screen so fast they are a blur really annoy me. I like to see when those shows were made, and you can't catch the copyright when they zoom by, just so the network can squeeze in another commercial.

[bgadow]

I predict a future where the "free" channel will be loaded with pop-ups and all sorts of other crap, but you will be able to pay extra to access the same shows sans the nuisance ads.

Have you seen the credits roll at the end of Entertainment Tonight? What a joke.

[andy]

The worst part is when those pop-ups bock important information like subtitles.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by colorfixer

What I was told when I bitched to the local stations is that they "watermark" certain programs at the behest of their providers to prevent someone from using them in manners not authorized by the program provider (read: record, redistribute, or otherwise enjoy them, =greed).

Those "bugs" don't stop people from taping shows using VCRs. I tape the NBC Nightly News, which has a small transparent NBC peacock bug in the lower left corner of the screen, every now and then and the tape always comes out great. I think the bugs are meant to thwart digital recording on DVDs of the network programs. There is no law I am aware of that prohibits recording of network TV shows (digital or otherwise), or anything else on television, using analog devices such as VCRs.

The bug that really gets me, however (at least it used to), is NBC's peacock with a promotional announcement for a new show. These bugs appear in the same spot as the standard NBC peacock (lower left corner of the screen), but fortunately they don't affect analog VCR recording. The first time I saw these bugs was a couple weeks ago, when NBC was about to begin showing "Clash of the Choirs." The bug remained on the screen all through prime time, which annoyed me at first, but I have since learned to ignore the bugs and concentrate on the program. I did see one downright cute bug during the holiday season, however--when the NBC peacock was shown wearing a Santa Claus cap. That has to be the cutest, most adorable thing I've ever seen on TV in my life, IMHO, as far as program promotion schemes are concerned.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by drh4683

I must say, the local UHF station in chicago WWME channel 23 is a 24-7 station of 50's-70s TV shows. Luckily there are no bugs or alterations to the end credits of any show on that station. I will miss WWME when it goes off the air next year.

I just looked up WWME-TV on Google. It is a class-A low-power UHF station; its entry on Wikipedia states that the station will continue to be available on digital cable (Comcast) in Chicago, even after the analog stations' shutdown deadline. I don't know what cable system serves your area, but again, if it is Comcast you will still be able to get WWME. There may be other systems in the area that will or currently do carry this channel digitally, but again, the only one mentioned on Wikipedia is Comcast.

BTW, I like the old 1950s-'70s TV shows as well, especially those from the '70s as I grew up in that decade. Neither TV Land nor Nick at Nite have very many of the shows I really like anymore, but that doesn't bother me, as I can get on DVD (through Netflix) the programs I cannot see on cable. Two of my many personal favorites are ABC's "The Odd Couple" (1970-'75) with Jack Klugman and the late Tony Randall and "Quincy" (1976-'83), an NBC series centering around a Los Angeles medical examiner, also starring Klugman in the title role.

I would suggest that, once WWME does go off the air for whatever reason (if it does, which I doubt), you look for your favorite old shows on DVD; they are available through Netflix and Blockbuster Video, to name but two. These DVD rental services have very reasonable subscription rates (in fact, Netflix reduced my rate last year), and best of all, IMHO, no late fees, meaning you can take your time watching the shows, rather than having to rush to meet a 2-week deadline, as is common with some places (Blockbuster used to have late fees, but they don't any longer). I've had a subscription to Netflix since getting a DVD player for Christmas in 2005, and have enjoyed all but one of the movies and shows I have seen to date (1973's "Serpico", starring Al Pacino, which was the very first movie I rented from Netflix). I am currently watching the old "Adam-12" shows on DVD in the evenings and am enjoying every minute of them. Netflix and Blockbuster have 90,000+ titles available, so you can almost always find your favorites. Netflix has multiple distribution centers throughout the US as well, so it is rare that any given show cannot be found; if one distribution point doesn't have your movie, the chances are excellent another one will.

BTW (2): I wish there was a MeTV affiliate in my area near Cleveland. Oh well, maybe some station may elect to carry the channel on a DTV subchannel after digital TV has been around a while.

[nasadowsk]

Originally Posted by andy

The worst part is when those pop-ups bock important information like subtitles.

Peeve #32642748976976 in life:

When they put subtitles on ENGLISH speaking folks.

[colorfixer]

Those "bugs" don't stop people from taping shows using VCRs. I tape the NBC Nightly News, which has a small transparent NBC peacock bug in the lower left corner of the screen, every now and then and the tape always comes out great. I think the bugs are meant to thwart digital recording on DVDs of the network programs. There is no law I am aware of that prohibits recording of network TV shows (digital or otherwise), or anything else on television, using analog devices such as VCRs.

This is true, but its hard(er) to sell the n-th season of the "mad raving idiot show" on pirate dvd (before the studios try to sell it) when its marked with some stations' logos and a network bug on the corner.

I too notice that the commercials are all synced on the U.S. networks. At least if you live near the borders the Canadians are out of sync with the U.S. ad breaks.

[andy]

Originally Posted by colorfixer

I too notice that the commercials are all synced on the U.S. networks. At least if you live near the borders the Canadians are out of sync with the U.S. ad breaks.

When you watch TV on DVDs you really see how many commercials there are. Most half hour shows don't make 22 minutes now!

I download a lot of BBC shows such as Top Gear because when they (eventually) show them on US TV they have to cut out more than a quarter of the show to fit the commercial in, and they plaster them with logos. Apart from the closing credits, they are all pretty much free of logos when they air in England. The only British channels that I've noticed logos on are the satellite channels.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by andy

When you watch TV on DVDs you really see how many commercials there are. Most half hour shows don't make 22 minutes now!

I agree. The number of commercials now shown during prime time network programming is nothing short of ridiculous, which is why I like watching my old favorite shows on DVD; the DVD versions show the entire program, minus the commercials. Also, 25-30 years ago or more there weren't as many commercials on TV as there are today; those that were there weren't nearly as crazy as some of the commercials we see nowadays. In the '60s-'70s, and likely prior to that as well, the FCC put strict limits on the number of commercials networks and local stations could run in an hour.

I think the commercial explosion is a direct result of the deregulation of the television industry in the mid-1980s. I also believe that, as the networks cram more and more commercials into their programming (cutting out parts of the shows to do so), more people are going to be watching their shows on DVD and via video on demand cable services, not to mention on the Internet (all three major networks, plus Fox, PBS, and The CW now offer at least part of their prime-time lineup on their websites via streaming video). The networks may be making more money these days than ever before, no thanks to those seemingly endless strings of commercials, but I think at the same time they are losing viewers who have become fed up with them. I'm not saying DVD, VOD, etc. will eventually kill network TV, but I will say that the Big Four networks may have far fewer viewers than they used to from now on.

Infomercials, IMHO, are just as bad as standard TV commercials, if not worse. I detest infomercials and paid commercial programs, which are nothing more than television commercials cleverly disguised as half-hour TV shows. (Needless to say, I avoid them like the plague.) I don't see how the local stations that run these can make any money from them, as hardly anyone watches them and no one, that I am aware of anyway, would tape them on a VCR or burn them to DVD for later viewing. Chad Hauris once mentioned in answer to one of my posts on this subject that TV stations do make money on infomercials, whether or not anyone watches them; however, I don't know for the life of me how that's possible. If few people watch a regular TV show, the program eventually flounders and is cancelled, meaning the station/network makes no money whatsoever (or very little, anyway) from it. Why should infomercials be any different?

Hmmm. It makes me wonder...

[Carmine]

First of all, let's not mix "bugs" with ads. As mentioned earlier, the proper term should be "pop-up ad".

I'm pretty accustomed to station ID bugs in the lower right corner. What makes this new NBC pop-up so bad is that it's a 1/3 of the way up from the bottom, right in your main field of view. It's advertising another inane NBC show. It never goes away. The standard NBC identifier bug is there too.

It would be nice to think that "artistic integrity" still existed, and that some producers might have it written into their network contracts that their "art" is not to be plastered with screen bugs and other promotional trash throughout the entire show.

Yeah I know, dream on.

Hell, we're being subjected to re-runs and second rate garbage this season because the networks won't give up $.02 of a revenue stream that didn't even exist 10 years ago. (See also: Writer's strike)

As far as preventing people from taping network TV shows to resell... Who does that?? Hard to believe that pirating network TV is more than a multi-hundred-dollar racket! Dream on; it's just another thing for them to "BRAND".

If bugs are so objectionable for people who would like to watch a pirate DVD, why is it "OK" to subject your prime-time viewers to them?

Bah! If they ever produced a recent TV show I wanted to see more than once (if that), I'd go out of my way to find this mythical pirate DVD!

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by Carmine

Who else has is tick'ed off at this garbage? That piece of junk in the left corner says, "Celebrity Apprentice Tomorrow 9/8 Central".



It doesn't go away. It stays there for the full hour. Except during commercials. Then it comes back.

I noticed this started during Christmas specials (nice way to ruin a SNL special) or movie.

Just when I thought TV couldn't get worse....

At least TV will go away soon.

I'm with you. My Mom and I noticed the same thing when we watched "It's A Wonderful Life." That logo was on almost all the time.

[colorfixer]

It doesn't go away. It stays there for the full hour. Except during commercials. Then it comes back.

Funny how that happens doesn't it...

I've noticed that NBC is starting to use a neutral white/gray bug proclaiming their peacock on the right and some blurb pushing another re-run.

I thought I was losing it when I watched some re-run and found they very subtly re-dubbed the dialog (animated show) to clip down the running time by about 20%. When I watched the DVD, the show had the original dialog!

[fsjonsey]

The commercials never have bugs. Shows where the priorities are.

[Einar72]

If we didn't have all those commercials, how could we ever deal with the lower prices we'd be stuck with at the store?

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by colorfixer

Funny how that happens doesn't it...

I've noticed that NBC is starting to use a neutral white/gray bug proclaiming their peacock on the right and some blurb pushing another re-run.

I think NBC changed the peacock to whitish-gray to prevent the image from burning into the screens of LCD/plasma flat panels. I read a post recently where it was stated that, in a sports bar with several FPs tuned to ESPN, the ESPN logo had burned itself into every one of the sets after months or even years of constant use. (I also read a post here that said the screens of monitors used to display departure/arrival times in airports, bus terminals, etc. were irreparably damaged when the schedules eventually burned themselves onto the phosphors, due to the fact that these monitors were left on 24/7, often at full brightness.)

This is not uncommon with logos that remain on-screen for extended periods. Television manufacturers have been warning set owners for decades (starting long before FPs and high-definition) not to leave stationary images such as network IDs, telephone numbers and so on on the screen for any extended length of time, as the images would eventually permanently burn themselves into the phosphors. Once such damage occurs, of course, the TV is ruined. Worse, the set's warranty will not cover this type of damage, as it is considered abuse.