I hate you NBC!

[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.

[Fisherdude]

Really ticks me off when I'm recording something to save.

[nasadowsk]

NBC: Now Broadcasting Commercials
ABC: Always Broadcasting Commercials
CBS: Commercial Broadcasting System

And they all break at the same time.

Cable's just as bad too, now. 1/2 the stations can't show a program without some stupid cute graphic flying around the screen...

[MRX37]

I hate that shit... It screams "We're desperate!!! WATCH IT!! WE NEED THE MONEY!!"

I watch most of my stuff on the internet nowadays anyway. I can suppress the ads, and fast forward through commercials, or if they've disabled fast forward, I can open up another window, and browse until the commercial is over.

[Snade]

Right, I hate it when the fixed logo is in color and you are watching an old black and white movie.

Some cable stations have moving animations with sound running across the bottom of the screen as a promo for some show. Very bad trend.

[Carmine]

Originally Posted by Snade

Right, I hate it when the fixed logo is in color and you are watching an old black and white movie.

Some cable stations have moving animations with sound running across the bottom of the screen as a promo for some show. Very bad trend.

Tell me about it! I was trying to enjoy a suspenseful B&W Twilight Zone marathon on Sci-Fi yesterday, and some flying piece of colored shit comes across the screen to tell me about some asinine show on later in the week.

When will they be satisfied? When I sign a contract to watch their foccocktra' show next week?

'Course I guess I'd be insecure too if the best show on my network was produced 50 years ago!

[Dave A]

Years ago...the 70's...the FCC used to slap stations with fines for "non-program material" which was their back door way of policing early 3/4" tape on the air with blanking errors. The "non-program" material was the lack of 3/4" full scan across the screen which left a blank stripe on one side of the screen or the other because of blanking errors. The stripe was not the program. Pink slip was in the mail.

I wonder if the rule still exists and does it apply to garbage promotions that have nothing to do with the program being aired? Or did the re-write of the act in 1984 get rid of this? Cable does not count as it is not broadcast. Over-the-air only.

Dave A

[MRX37]

I'm sure either the rule has been rewritten, or the broadcasters have a loophole, as those crap promotions have been going on for years.

[ccheath]

Originally Posted by Snade

Right, I hate it when the fixed logo is in color and you are watching an old black and white movie.

Just turn down the color. It'll blend in.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by Dave A

Years ago...the 70's...the FCC used to slap stations with fines for "non-program material" which was their back door way of policing early 3/4" tape on the air with blanking errors.
I wonder if the rule still exists and does it apply to garbage promotions that have nothing to do with the program being aired?

I'm pretty sure the Funny Cookie Corporation got rid of the people (engineers) who would even know about such technical details years ago. But have a wardrobe malfunction, and the FCC is all over your behind like a rash...

[Snade]

Originally Posted by ccheath

Just turn down the color. It'll blend in.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Damn. Shoulda thought of that.

[Chad Hauris]

I have noticed this kind of advertising getting worse and worse too. It used to be that cable networks would have a transparent logo on them and broadcast networks would have none. What's especially irritating is advertisements which come on with sound and motion during a show. I had to totally give up watching Star Trek Voyager and Next Generation on cable networks and just buy the DVD's as there was so much advertising junk on "Spike TV" and "G4" where the shows were available.

[dtuomi]

The logos themselves are called bugs. They used to just hang around on the screen, but lately have been getting pretty animated.

The sad part is a few years ago there was a conversation on slashdot.org about an English group that was (unsuccessfully) working to get bugs banned off British TV. In reading through the replies to the news article though the majority (of fairly young respondents) basically said they liked the bugs and couldn't understand why anyone would get rid of them. They apparently used them to see what channel they were on, etc.

I knew then that it was too late to do anything about them, the young generation couldn't remember a time without bugs.

David

[radiotvnut]

I don't care for that sort of thing myself. Another thing they do that rubs me wrong is when they edit out part of a show so more commercials will fit in a time slot. I know this has been done with MacGyver because I'm old enough to remember when it came on ABC and I now notice that small parts have been edited out for the re-runs on the cable networks. It also upsets me when they run advertising through the end credits and theme music of an old TV show. I don't know why this bothers me; but, it does. I expect to see a show just like I did 20 years ago. I guess the only way I'll be able to do that is buy the DVD's. Then, I can watch the complete show without commercials or other annoying things.

[fsjonsey]

I can see a day where watching tv will be akin to dodging popups and banner ads on a webpage.