-=> George White said to Jasen Betts
 -=> about "{at}%^{at}#$%^ VEROBOARD" on 03-20-04  13:00.....

 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 upcomeing
 GW> programs (usually of no interest), they repeat them interminalbly, and
 GW> they are nothing like as well made as the commercials they _feel_ as
 GW> if they are longer...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

   ,-./\
  /     \ From Greg Mayman, in beautiful Adelaide, South Australia
  \_,-*_/    "Queen City of The South"    34:55 S  138:36 E
       v

... What we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.
___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30

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