Advertising on commercial television

[py_megapixel]

Is it me, or do the ad breaks on TV stations seem to be getting longer, and the ads more ridiculous?

CompareTheMarket's meerkats are still there, as are Lloyds' horses. There's also loads of broadband adverts.

I thought there was an EU cap on maximum ratio of advertising to content, but I might be making that up.

 

[Darandio]

You might be making it up, can anyone remember the amount of funeral plan adverts last year? It was nearly every other advert. Thankfully they don't seem to have re-emerged during the pandemic.

 

[Tetchytyke]

The adverts depend on the demographic far more these days. Daytime TV is still full of adverts for Over-50s life insurance and high cost loans. Working from home, I've seen too many adverts on daytime TV

Channel 5 seems to have the longest ad breaks.

 

[Bevan Price]

I find that most TV adverts are - and have almost always been - inane, irritating, and often discourage me from buying what they are trying to sell.
The ones I hate most are loudmouth wallys shouting at me, especially those pretending to be animals.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

What's currently permitted? 15 minutes of ads / 45 minutes of actual programmes, per hour?

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

Speaking of the ridiculous, am I the only one who absolutely despises the Haribo adverts?

 

[JamesT]

The adverts depend on the demographic far more these days. Daytime TV is still full of adverts for Over-50s life insurance and high cost loans. Working from home, I've seen too many adverts on daytime TV

Channel 5 seems to have the longest ad breaks.

I’ve been watching the Tour de France coverage on ITV4 and I’d agree there do seem to be a large proportion aimed at that older demographic which seems odd as I’d have expected that cycling fans would be somewhat younger.

I don’t know about Channel 5 in general, but their rugby highlights have very short ad breaks, normally only one advert before back to the programme.

 

[S&CLER]

It's the repetitiousness of ads that is most irritating, particularly on some channels, e.g. PBS America, which seem to have a limited range of advertisers. I usually record anything I want to watch, apart from the news, and watch it later so that I can fast forward the ads. You can always mute the ads if you're watching in real time, of course. You can't do that with radio advertising, which is even worse than TV and far less professional, especially the rapid gabble which is the spoken equivalent of small print. It makes Classic FM, for example, more or less unlistenable except after 8 p.m., when they play complete works

 

[westv]

I’ve been watching the Tour de France coverage on ITV4

What's "ITV"?

 

[yorksrob]

I stream most of my telly and most of the adverts I get are for online gambling. The most gambling I indulge in is the penny push on Brighton Pier occasionally !

 

[hexagon789]

The adverts depend on the demographic far more these days. Daytime TV is still full of adverts for Over-50s life insurance and high cost loans. Working from home, I've seen too many adverts on daytime TV

Channel 5 seems to have the longest ad breaks.

Try US TV - British TV seems quite reasonable in comparison.

 

[GB]

What's currently permitted? 15 minutes of ads / 45 minutes of actual programmes, per hour?

*For TV shows it used to be...

7 minutes per 1 hour block for channels 3, 4 and 5. Can be up to 8 minutes during morning primetime and evening primetime. Other channels (satellite) can have up to 9 minutes of advertisement per 1 hour block. Can be slightly exceeded if the advertisement time contains telesales.

(different rules and numbers for films.)

*There was talk last year of extending what is allowed and I think some/most/all of the EU from 2020 are permitted up to 20 minutes advert time!

 

[PeterC]

The increasing length of the ad breaks really came home to me one night this week when I managed to go to the loo AND make a cup of tea before the programme restarted.

This seems to be partly compensated by minimal breaks between programmes.

 

[route101]

Dont pay much notice to adverts these days. You used to have memorable ones back in the day but of late cant think of any.

 

[yorksrob]

Illustrates the decline of telly these days.

At least we still have Midsomer Murders.

 

[philjo]

At least we still have Midsomer Murders.

I have Midsomer Murders set on series record on my PVR. If I skip through the adverts a 2 hour episode can be watched in about 90 minutes !

 

[yorksrob]

I have Midsomer Murders set on series record on my PVR. If I skip through the adverts a 2 hour episode can be watched in about 90 minutes !

Yes it's shocking.

The rot set in when ITV cut the end credits of Inspector Morse to fit in more adverts. It was the beginning of the end.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

What's currently permitted? 15 minutes of ads / 45 minutes of actual programmes, per hour?

I have Midsomer Murders set on series record on my PVR. If I skip through the adverts a 2 hour episode can be watched in about 90 minutes !

I rest my case, m'lud!

 

[py_megapixel]

Why are piglets taking advice from a badger anyway ?

I think one would be well advised not to read too much into Peppa Pig...

 

[yorksrob]

I think one would be well advised not to read too much into Peppa Pig...

One tries to avoid, but when it's blasted into your face every fifteen minutes !

 

[Mojo]

I thought there was an EU cap on maximum ratio of advertising to content, but I might be making that up.

As is usual for most things, the UK rules in this instance are better than the EU rules. Whilst the EU has its own maximum caps, Ofcom rules state that for channels 3-5 the average must be no more than 7 Min per hour over the course of the 'day' (special events may allow any unused allowance to be carried forward from one day to the next). The 'day' starts at 06.00 hrs. There are also restrictions between 07.00 - 09.00 and 18.00 - 23.00 that the average cannot exceed 8 Min per hour between these times. For other channels there is a maximum average of 9 Min an hour per day, and in all cases in any clock hour advertising cannot exceed a total of 12 Min.

 

[MotCO]

Daytime TV is still full of adverts for Over-50s life insurance and high cost loans.

And high backed chairs, walk-in showers, but I don't remember seeing chairlifts recently

 

[Howardh]

I've virtually given up with mainstream TV, I do use NowTV for sky sports, and it's extremely annoying that premium rate channels asking a lot for subs are infested with ads
However NowTV has been surveying for opinion as to how much we would pay for ad free TV.

 

[superjohn]

My shifts often lead to me watching TV to fill time before work in the early hours. The minor digital channels are a real mix. Some switch over to continuous teleshopping infomercials while those that still broadcast programmes often have no adverts at all during the breaks, just a couple of trailers for other shows. I don’t know if that is an exercise in manipulating the ‘average’ screen time to allow more adverts at other times or just that they can’t get advertisers for unpopular periods.

 

[dosxuk]

I've virtually given up with mainstream TV, I do use NowTV for sky sports, and it's extremely annoying that premium rate channels asking a lot for subs are infested with ads
However NowTV has been surveying for opinion as to how much we would pay for ad free TV.

Note that Now TV is actually Sky, marketed at people who don't want Sky (which is also why it lags behind on things like HD/UHD, because Sky want their channels to seem premium compared to the cheaper options that Now offer).

 

[edwin_m]

This seems to be partly compensated by minimal breaks between programmes.

Yes, they seem to have realized that if there are no ads between programmes people are more likely to carry on watching the next programme and the ads within it. The other thing is plugs for other programmes, or particularly pointlessly the programme you're actually watching (or would be if the break wasn't so long). I'm not sure if they count towards the advertising time or whether they put them in to pad out American programmes to a full hour or whatever, when the lack of rules over there means the programme content per hour is even lower.

 

[Smethwickian]

If I really must watch a commercial channel 'as broadcast' rather than recorded or on-demand, I find myself hitting the mute button quite often because not only are adverts increasingly repetitive, inane, puerile, twee, repetitive, cringeworthy and repetitive, they can also be jarringly loud, brash and, did I mention, irritatingly repetitive?
What I also get narked about is that we fund this crass drivel in our daily spending whether we want to or not as it would be really hard to avoid patronage of every single shop, service, product, bank, car model, insurance provider, charity or public body that ever advertises on commercial TV and radio.
And the ads are so repetitive.

 

[Springs Branch]

Try US TV - British TV seems quite reasonable in comparison.

It's the repetitiousness of ads that is most irritating, particularly on some channels, e.g. PBS America, which seem to have a limited range of advertisers......

Same applies in Australia. British TV advertising looks a model of sophistication in comparison (except for some "global" commercials for things like prestige cars - where the left-hand-drive vehicle, fjord landscape and "overseas model shown" small print are a dead giveaway).

But one of my biggest gripes about the commercial channels Down Under isn't just the number of amateurish, shouty ads for "Crazy Dave's Discount Carpet Warehouse", of which there are plenty, but that a similar amount of time is then devoted to repetitive, over-and-over-again previews for that channel's current prime-time cookery or vote-the-bachelor-off-the-island reality show.

 

[Westcountryman]

No-one has actually mentioned the vast number of ads on many channels, asking you to contribute £2-£3 a month for stray dogs, cats, donkeys, children in Yemen, blindness in Africa etc, etc, etc. All very worthy, but I sometimes wonder how much of any contribution you make is spent funding further ads.

 

[Ostrich]

No-one has actually mentioned the vast number of ads on many channels, asking you to contribute £2-£3 a month for stray dogs, cats, donkeys, children in Yemen, blindness in Africa etc, etc, etc.....

Ah, the "misery ads"! Whoever wrote the accompanying sepulchral piano music must have made a small fortune ...
One positive thing, at least, is that some (not all) charities do now give you a choice of two Text responses - one where they'll phone you back to set up your donation or whatever, and a second where you can make a single one-off contribution without further contact. Given the perhaps vulnerable people these ads are targeting, that has to be a welcome move.