IBM wants commercials DURING DVD movies

[jonas more]

Looks like the movie industry may have found a new way to screw with their consumers... IBM wants them to insert commercials into the movies we purchase or rent on DVD.

We would have the option to PAY MORE for a commercial free version.

It sounds like a good idea to purchase the cheaper version and edit out the ads but I really wouldn't want to endorse their scheme by spending money on them.

I wonder if the threat of a boycott against any company who advertises in this manner would do any good.

Anthony

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/11991.cfm

(sorry if this topic has already been discussed. A search revealed no results)

[Marvingj]

Interesting........

[Xylob the Destroyer]

When the new DVDs are inserted, the DVD player will automatically check to see what type of disc you are inserting and if it is the commercial-infused version, it " will either play embedded ads on the disc over the course of the movie, or connect to the internet to download new ads to embed in real-time into the film."

Gee, my DVD player isn't fancy enough to do that. It sure as hell can't connect to the internet!! Does this mean than newer DVD's won't work on older players?
That will sure as hell piss off a ton of consumers (including ME!).

[mats.hogberg]

I hate the previews and ads as it is - one good reason to backup main movie only. Give me a commercial ridden DVD for free and I may be in. I won't pay for it.

/Mats

[thecoalman]

It says there is ads on the disc, the internet connection would be used if you have one so they could get fresh ads instead stale ones.

If they are providing a lower cost alternative to a non-ad disc(like such a thing exists), I don't see the problem. If you don't want ads to save a few bucks don't buy the ad version.

On the other hand if all discs come with this then I could forsee some consumer backlash.

[oldandinthe way]

I assume that IBM thinks that no one wants to pay for anything and if ads make DVDs cheaper they'll be succesful.

This is now the mainstream view of the Internet so why not DVDs.

It is impossible to get venture money for an Internet startup unless one has an advertising based revenue model.

And you know, IBM is probably RIGHT.

There is no likely source of opposition.

[Midzuki]

IMHO, they would be only giving more fuel (or "raisons-d'être") to the pirates.

*****

[bendixG15]

I wouldn't worry about IBM's great ideas.
When it comes to consumer's products, they have a lousy batting average going all the way back to the chicklet keyboard computer.

[TJK1911]

....

On the other hand if all discs come with this then I could forsee some consumer backlash.

If I recall correctly, when cable television first came out one of the great things about it was NO COMMERCIALS on the cable-only channels. Because after all, how could they possibly justify putting commercials in channels that you paid extra to get? What's the percentage of commercial-free channels (uninterrupted programs) now?

As far as a backlash goes... well, I definitely stopped watching AMC (American Movie Classics) when they went from uninterrupted movies to commercials every five minutes, but it's still there.

[thecoalman]

It is impossible to get venture money for an Internet startup unless one has an advertising based revenue model.

That's because there are very few subscription sites that have succeeded because people can get the same service elsewhere with ads. About the only ones I can think of are major newspapers and they are struggling with it. I know the Wall Street Journal may go ads only

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/11/13/murdoch-may-make-wall-street-journal-free

[thecoalman]

If I recall correctly, when cable television first came out one of the great things about it was .

The first cable network was very near where i live, and the first city to get HBO back in 72 was even closer. Guess it was the geogaraphy because New york and Philly are very close. They pulled broadcast stations in from the major nearby cities that your average antennae wouldn't be able to receive then cabled it to peoples houses. So they did have commercials, AFAIK the only commercial free cable has been the premium pay channels like HBO. The cable we had when i was a kid was just as described above, rebroadcasts of the major stations in the big cities. All 14 channels including the 4 local ones..

[edDV]

If I recall correctly, when cable television first came out one of the great things about it was .

The first cable network was very near where i live, and the first city to get HBO back in 72 was even closer. Guess it was the geogaraphy because New york and Philly are very close. They pulled broadcast stations in from the major nearby cities that your average antennae wouldn't be able to receive then cabled it to peoples houses. So they did have commercials, AFAIK the only commercial free cable has been the premium pay channels like HBO. The cable we had when i was a kid was just as described above, rebroadcasts of the major stations in the big cities. All 14 channels including the 4 local ones..

Currently the "On Demand" (Comcast) and "In Demand" (Time Warner) video on demand (VOD) channels are commercial free. Enjoy this while you can as they introduce the product. In time local ad inserts targeted as tight as your neighborhood are in the works. It is even possible to insert unique ads to a street address using these methods.

Internet download VOD ads can be similarly narrow targeted.

[lordsmurf]

Easily one of the dumbest ideas I've heard in 2007.

[dphirschler]

I'm pissed off just thinking about it! One reason I like to watch movies on DVD is it seems to be the last refuge from the constant barrage of everybody wanting to take my money! And even then I get product placements (which also piss me off) and non-skippable ads at the beginning of the disc.

I hate "in your face" ads. Like at the gas pumps sometimes this flat screen TV with sound so loud it distorts goes off and starts trying to sell me more crap! Why can't I just ******* pump my gas in peace? At least Google puts the ads at the side and lets you decide if you want to click on them.


Darryl

[fritzi93]

I'm pissed off just thinking about it!

:P Me too, I had to laugh though. I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets pissed by the blaring damned speakers while I'm pumping gas. When I buy a DVD, first thing I do is back up movie only. Or sometimes use VobBlanker on an episode disc. There's a lot of satisfaction in killing an advert with VobBlanker: "Aha! Dirty bastards! There's an advert! Die, die!" Ahem.

[SatStorm]

If those DVD with the adds give me the latest Hollywood movies at a cost around 5$ or less, I don't have any problem with this. I shall add a cost around 30 cents for the DVD-R and probably I'll have to suggest to the comskip developers a new function. Probably in combination with vob blanker.

[SmokieStover]

The content owners have always wanted to sell you a copy, then charge you everytime you watch it. Looks like someone has figured out how it can be done. If it happens, I'm no longer a buyer.

The worst part of TV advertizing is the shear amount of time it consumes.......17 minutes per hour, and more if you count the self promotion.

Many of us are old enough to remember the 1950's and '60's when ad time was 9 minutes per hour. A one hour program was 51 minutes long and you appreciated the "Sponsors" who made it possible. I think by the early '80's that one hour program was down to 47 minutes and now its only 42 or 43 minutes.

During the Winter, I watch 3 hours of "New" TV programing and 3 to 5 hours of "Old" TV programming per week. All is recorded via VCR at SLP. Only I hour of that is "New" Network or OTA TV. Commercial skip and closed captions are the best things since sliced bread. I would never, ever buy anything with ads that can not be skipped!

[Xylob the Destroyer]

...Currently the "On Demand" (Comcast) and "In Demand" (Time Warner) video on demand (VOD) channels are commercial free...

Not so.
I have Comcast and use On Demand regularly. Every single thing I have watched via their On Demand was preceded by at least one advertisement.
True, there were no ads DURING the video, but I still consider 1 or 2 ads before to not be commercial free.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Easily one of the dumbest ideas I've heard in 2007.

What about Yahoo and Adobe's recent pax to embed advertisements in PDF files downloaded from Yahoo? They would be targeted too (like current web ads) and change each time you open the PDF. However, they are removed on hard copies (great environmental incentive that).

[harrisonford]

You need only three words:




EDIT IT OUT

thats what this website is all about!!!

good luck IBM

[funnel71]

I can shorten that to 1 word: VOBBlanker

[oldandinthe way]

Many "free" Comcast VOD offerings have commercials, before, during and after the program. Among the offenders BBC, Concert TV, Anime.

the coalman understands, if you can get it free with ads, free is what you will get.

[DRP]

I have never watched a commercial/retail DVD in my life. My DVD player is used on a daily basis playing SVCDs and DVDs made by me on the RW discs. I copy everything I want to watch in the way I want to watch it, so this would have virtually nil effect on me at all aside from a couple of extra things to kill off the disc in the VobBlanker stage. If they want to do it, I say go ahead. It will just add even more justification for illegal duplication.

[DereX888]

My father forced me once to grab a calculator and count how many movies/shows i watch a week on tv, and no, he didn't object me watching movies, he loves movies and I pick it up from him - he just wanted to show me how much of my precious TIME of my life i waste on commercials.
It was something close to a week of life wasted on commercials per year, at 3 or 4 movies a week only.
Since then I never watch live tv, only through VCRs in the past and PVRs later.
Very few times I made exceptions to watch it live (for breaking news events such as 9/11).
I remember, at first it felt weird to watch i.e. Friends after it finished on tv, but once i get used to it I immediately lost that trained-by-tv old habit to "watch it now because it is on tv", and I could watch it next hour or next day whenever *I wanted to* and felt like it, no more rush, pure freedom.

Once you get out of the "tv spell" (to watch it now because its on), you will always wonder how anyone can stand watching it live - without possibility to skip the crap, pause, rewind or FF.

Same thing goes for DVDs, i actually first started copying DVDs and watch my movies from the DVD-Rs rather than from origial discs just to get rid of the annoying non-skippable PUOs. The backup reasoning behind copying came later, when I got my first damaged DVD that I wasn't able to replace at the store.


IBM must be desperate trying to pull it of.
Im sure no one will object it, but Im also sure it will only increase number of commercials-free piracy on the web.

[NiteLite]

....

On the other hand if all discs come with this then I could forsee some consumer backlash.

If I recall correctly, when cable television first came out one of the great things about it was NO COMMERCIALS on the cable-only channels. Because after all, how could they possibly justify putting commercials in channels that you paid extra to get? What's the percentage of commercial-free channels (uninterrupted programs) now?

As far as a backlash goes... well, I definitely stopped watching AMC (American Movie Classics) when they went from uninterrupted movies to commercials every five minutes, but it's still there.

Exactly, TJK1911.
Consumer backlash...Ha.
People sit back and take what comes to them. They wont organize in an effort to stop this type of invasion. Yes, the cable start-up was for pay monthly so you dont get commercials but now all basic and most premiums have commercials and the people still refuse to say or do anything about it.
I could easily see it happening because people are to passive to do anything about it. One of the best kept secrets is how much power the consumer has but just think about the Govt for instance - look at what they get away with because the people just take it and do nothing. Absolutely nothing.
(The mention of Govt is not for debate but for reference only)

[thecoalman]

Yes, the cable start-up was for pay monthly so you dont get commercials but now all basic and most premiums have commercials

Again it was first inveneted for people that lived in areas that couldn't get very good reception over the airwaves, these were simply rebroadcasts. In our area even getting very close stations can be an issue because of the geography now. I have one TV on antennae if I want to watch two certain channels I still have to adjust the antennae. It's very hilly here, going for ride in a car is like taking a roller coaster ride. Even on the interstate... But you also have a lot of pockets of densely populated areas. To get good TV reception cable is really the only way.

I'd have to agree with most of the views, commercials are taking over a vast portion of daily living, That's one of the reasons I watch mostly PBS if anything but even that has "commercials". Someone has to pay the bill and if the consumer doesn't want to then the providers have to look elsewhere. If you take this site for example do you think Baldrick would be able to make a living off of it without the ads if he had to rely on subscriptions or donations? The answer is a definite no because it would never have the huge membership if it was subscription based and donations would only go so far. I can guess donations are enough to cover server costs.

On the other hand if this site was filled with ads there's a good chance people would just look elsewhere. There's a fine line you're walking between providing what the consumer will tolerate and what they won't. I can think of many sites I won't go near because of ads.

Getting back to the discs if they lower the costs of the discs then so be it, however if its just another ad that is going to be piled onto the ones already on there then I could agree its starting to get a little ridiculous.

[DereX888]

*free* or $1 DVDs full of commercials every 5 minutes? why not, it should be (and IMHO would be) very popular (at least until some Nielsen reports that 99% of'em are being FF'd or skipped )

But to pay just few bucks less (say $15 instead of $20) for such 'pleasure'? I doubt it. First of all, if someone decides to buy it, apparently he can afford few bucks more expensive version as well. And if he/she can't afford it, those few bucks less won't make a difference - and most likely such person would download it pirated for free or buy much cheaper 'pirated' hard copy version.

However, I see a room here for such commercials-laced discs: rental stores.
Assuming advertisers cover/take away big chunk of releasing costs, the rental companies could get them for really low price, allowing them to rent movies even cheaper and maybe make more money in the same time.

Anyways, the future of advertising is in the product placement (which we already see in tv shows and some movies).
If I was i.e. General Motors marketing guy, I'd offer free cars to any moviemaker struggling with budget who'd want to use my cars in his movies...
Being on many movie sets I always wondered why the production companies spend so much on catering, which usually is crappy (i.e. coffee almost *always* sucks on every set) and never ask i.e. Pepsi or Coca-Cola or Starbucks (edit: not that I like any of them!) to supply them with free drinks during production in exchange for placing their products in the movies or show. Anyways they *pay* for the same soft drinks and bottled water LOL, while they could have had it free... Of course not always it would possible (I can't imagine how would they add a Starbuck cup to a plot happening i.e. in a medieval times) but nevertheless it is not practiced as much as it could have been, yet all producers always complain on budget constraints...

[ViRaL1]

My three words are a bit different.

Don't buy them.

[SatStorm]

Actually they are four words

[Taterbug]

Three possible aspect of having commercials in dvds.

To reduce costs of distribution, make the dvd's having commercials downloadable.

Commercials would be a greater source of profits for independant movies or movies that don't have broad appeal. It could also increase later marketability of later films for those smaller studio's or producers. There are many movies I would have watched IF I didn't have to pay for them. Commercials would make those films profitable. The advertisers could for independant films could become the primary source of funding production.

Also the commercials would not necessarily have to be interruptions. The movie could be reduced to 3/4 of the display with silent commercials running the entire time along the margin(s). With the advent of large screen tv's the movie display would still be sizeable. For an idea of how that would would see Bloomberg tv.

For a premium movie I imagine I would buy a commercial free dvd. But for a movie that I'm not willing to buy, commercials in it would make that movie available to me.