Anyone watch ads? They have gone high tech.

[edDV]

Ads differ on the SD channel vs. the HD channel on cable and sat in No America. The audience is different.

As for OTA broadcast, the ads differ if you watch over the air vs. watch the same channel on cable or sat.

Ads for broadcast also differ for geographic cable systems within the local service area.

This is getting close to Google's ad targeting.

Anyone care?

Is this happening in other countries?

[freebird73717]

I have a tivo so I don't watch the advertisments.

I'm strictly OTA so I couldn't say if it's going on in my area or not. Makes sense to do targeted advertising though. More bang for their buck.

[redwudz]

Better suited to OT. Moving.

[yoda313]

The only thing I have noticed about ads is how they still haven't fully figured out that OAR thingy....

I mean I'll still get movie previews cropped inside a rectangular letterboxed matte when they could simply flag it to fill the screen properly at either 1.85 or 2.35. To me if you're trying to get hd viewers to wow over your movie preview shouldn't they be able to see it at the FULL SIZE avialable to them? I mean its not that impressive to show an ad to get you to buy a dvd/bluray copy of Avatar if the commercial is the size of a postage stamp on your tv when it could be stretched properly with the appropriate oar flag.

One thing I do find annoying on comcast is how they'll abort commercials and put something else on instead. I mean one commercial will start and less than a second in something else starts. I haven't noticed a pattern but I wonder if those are "me" commercials that comcast uses to promote themselves on their own system. I don't know if those are specifically comcast commercials that have that happen where they essentially preempt a commercial that's already started. Anyone know what I"m talking about? (for clarification I'm talking about a commercial that is interrupted and another commercial starts immediately over it while the other one was just starting)

[lordsmurf]

I FF ads, but if something looks cool, I'll REW and watch it. I'm not anti-ad, I'm anti-crap.

[Ai Haibara]

Well, they were already doing something of the sort with actual TV programming - The Simpsons, for example, would show a 'completely' different opening depending upon whether you were watching it over SD or HD. That was before the transition, though... I don't know if they're still doing it, but... who knows? Maybe you could end up seeing different commercials, or not receiving certain parts of the broadcast (like those sports blackouts, or receiving alternate feeds), just because you're not using an HDMI setup...

...then again, I've admitted I'm paranoid on these forums before, I believe. So... :P

[lordsmurf]

Hey, if they can find a way to show me more ads for Iron Man, and less ads for heavy-flow tampons, based off my audience info, I'll all for it. Show me ads that matter, and I'll show you somebody willing to watch them. I already do that with my DVR.

[vhelp]

Funny, I have notice this for years. I think its more coensidense, but could be tied to or related to the major content providers: satelite vs. cable vs OTA

When I first had satellite, back in 2001, I noticed that *some* of the commercials were different. I guess it all depended on the content more, but that is just a guess. Still, I never gave it much thought back then nor today

Hey, I got an excellent idea though. If you are up to it, being that you started this discussion.

How about we all compare a few footage. We don't have to post videos, just images, of anything that is currently on..any station you desire.

I have directv, tell me what you channel you would like me to snip pics from and I'll do it right now. Since we are not concirned with quality I can post in jpeg to conserve space. Someone could post a tv guide of whats on now (or later, if you like) and we can all compare notes. It would be interesting.

hmm.. was just thinking, I have directv plus dvr, and have it set to record any and all Doctor Who episodes. Last night was the premier of the new, 11th doctor. If you are correct, edDV, then they may have gone through your theory and are airing certain commecials based on catagory or geniology or whatver. Anyway. My point is, since we all seem to have dvr's, if anyone recorded it yesterday (dvr's are great, after all) we can replay each version and review what what was aired. I don't know..sound interesting to me

-vhelp 5358

[edDV]

One thing I do find annoying on comcast is how they'll abort commercials and put something else on instead. I mean one commercial will start and less than a second in something else starts. I haven't noticed a pattern but I wonder if those are "me" commercials that comcast uses to promote themselves on their own system. I don't know if those are specifically comcast commercials that have that happen where they essentially preempt a commercial that's already started. Anyone know what I"m talking about? (for clarification I'm talking about a commercial that is interrupted and another commercial starts immediately over it while the other one was just starting)

Yes, Comcast does inserts down to the local town level here. They used to do this locally but the commercial insert equipment was awful. Looked like U-Matic or S-VHS level.

Then they consolidated ad inserts to distant digital hubs connected to here by fiber. Now the ad picture quality is top notch and inserts are seamless, even the local ads. The next town over gets different local ads.

Sometimes I have several TV sets tuned to the same network around the house. I've noticed the breaks for SD differ vs. the same network HD feed for cable networks. Even the infomercials played at night sometimes differ.

I know that major market TV stations (e.g. KGO7 San Francisco) send different inserts to various geographic cable systems which differ from those on the OTA broadcast. Usually cable systems don't insert ads into broadcast feeds unless under special arrangement.

Then there is the Comcast SportsNet that is a regional sports network. They have their own HD production trucks for broadcasting NBA, Major league baseball, etc. plus college games. Comcast inserts all the ads locally but they also feed DirectTV and other cable systems which may have different ads.

It is getting more sophisticated every year.