Google Ad Revenue To Top UK Broadcaster's

GoingTurbo writes, "By the end of the year advertisers in the UK will have spent more money advertising on Google than they did on the UK's Channel Four TV station. The article suggests we will see the slow erosion of traditional television broadcasting, and with it, the death of the great TV ads of the past. The article offers an alternative possibility for the future of television." From the article: "The US has been forced to contend with heinously patronizing and crude TV advertising for decades, but the UK's advertising industry has managed to create art out of the dirty act of selling. Some of the best short films of the last century have been television advertisements... Even if some of these make the transition... online, they'll lack the spectacle of their TV equivalent."

Tivo like solutions not popular in UK

[thelost]

The roll out of Tivo solutions in the UK have not been nearly as popular as in America. I have noticed since the launch of Tivo in the US it has got to the point where it is culturally referenced in films, tv, media, everywhere - in other words it's practically reached Hoover standard.

The reasons why DVR solutions are of course more complex then the point I am making here, but I would argue one of the reasons is that we have two terrestrial channels that have no adverts (bbc1 and bbc2) and three (ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5) which we grumble about, but honestly aren't that invasive - compared to American television.

With the advent of digital tv we actually have access to a great many more channels, but for the most part all the bbc channels are ad free - it's what we pay a tv license for.

Re:Who cares about channel four ads?

[Alioth]

The most telling thing: In the US, the Simpson's takes a half hour slot. When the Simpsons was on BBC2, they fit two episodes in a half hour slot.

Typical US advertising for a half hour program goes:

Ads
Intro credits
Ads
Programme first half
Ads
Programme second half
Ads
Ending credits
Ads

Typical UK advertising on a half hour slot:

Ads
Intro credits
Programme first half
Ads
Programme second half
Ending credits
Ads

Generally, the ad breaks are shorter, too. When I lived in the US, I practically gave up watching TV because the advertising was so frequent, invasive - and especially car adverts - loud and obnoxious.

Re:Who cares about channel four ads?

[Chacham]

When the Simpsons was on BBC2, they fit two episodes in a half hour slot.

In the words of Raplh Wiggum, "That's unpossible!".

US shows of late take about 22 minutes (down from 25 some years back). Two 22 minutes episodes do not fit into a half-hour. So, either they snipped parts of the show (e.g. 1 min of intro, 2 min of credits, and 4 minutes randomly) or it wasn't in a half-hour.