Hi Greg,

On 26-Mar-04, Greg Mayman wrote to George White:

 GW>> The BBC feels as though it has more adverts than the commercial
 GW>> channels. In reality there are less, but as they are for
 GW>> upcomeing programs (usually of no interest), they repeat them
 GW>> interminalbly, and they are nothing like as well made as the
 GW>> commercials they _feel_ as if they are longer...

 GM> The same with the ABC in Aus. And SBS has "real" commercials, for
 GM> their sponsor companies.

 GM> But the ABC and SBS adverts and promos are ALWAYS at the END of a
 GM> program -- they NEVER intrude on it.

Likewise here, thankfully.

 GM> OTOH the truly commercial TV stations scatter their adverts
 GM> through their programs -- they don't want a big block at the end
 GM> as the viewer might go to the toilet, or take the time to make a
 GM> cuppa, and so miss them. In fact they rarely have more than about
 GM> 30 seconds of adverts between the end of one program and the
 GM> beginning of the next -- gotta keep the viewers in front of the
 GM> set at all times!

 GM> The adverts are usually in blocks of about 2 minutes, with about
 GM> five minutes of program between the blocks. The latest figure I
 GM> saw for advert content was 22 minutes an hour, average.

Ouch! In the UK they are legally limited to, I think, 7 minutes
adverts per hour.

 GM> A movie is usually edited down to roughly the length it would have
 GM> been without the adverts, and their other programs are also
 GM> trimmed if they run to more than 20 minutes for a half hour slot.

I don't think they edit anything down in the UK. They normally run 15
of 20 minutes between advert blocks (depending on the length of the
program).

 GM> I can't stand (a) the editing down and (b) the constant
 GM> interruptions, so I don't watch our three commercial TV channels.

 GM> OTOH what little I've seen of their programs shows that I'm not
 GM> missing much since I get bored by endless cheap sitcoms,

I watch very little on the commercial channels, it's nearly all soaps
and most of the rest seems to be chat shows. But they do have a _few_
programs worth watching - mostly sporting related.

George

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