FRIENDLY FIRE - The large media companies are very upset with recording equipment that can allow viewers to skip commercials. They rightly believe that if we could view our programs uninterrupted by stupid, inane and obtrusive "messages" we would.
What the media companies don't understand is that there is a social contract between them and their rapidly disappearing viewers. We will tolerate a certain amount of commercial intrusion, but if they go too far and cram too much, they will lose our consent. We will skip commercials, download streaming media or go to the Net.
This social contract applies in many other areas of life, and so it is a bit surprising that the media have not figured out our limits. Most nations understand that when taxes get too high (and the rate varies by culture and is not absolute) people will stop complying-and worse stop even feeling guilty about cheating.
Most traffic engineers know that when traffic-calming measures slow things down too much, we will not be calm and will run stop signs, lights and speed. When posted limits are too low, we will set our own pace. When stop lights are too long, we will speed up, so as not to get stuck.
In an impatient world, where we refuse to wait an extra two seconds for a website to load, we will rebel against holding our content hostage to endless interruptions.
The media companies, like dope dealers, think they're being clever by giving us a 20 minute slice of a movie at the start and then, figuring we're hooked, start cramming in more and more commercials closer and closer together. In the last twenty minutes of some movies, we get commercial breaks every four minutes lasting up to four minutes.
Aside from ruining any artistic integrity and breaking any sense of continuity, it conditions us to void our contract with the media and withdraw our consent. This is completely predictable, and I truly don't understand why they don't seem to understand.
Nowhere is their inability to understand their viewers clearer than on cable. With vastly fewer viewers than the broadcast stations, they still insist on the same number of commercial minutes--or even more! You might think that good capitalists would be looking for some competitive advantage, some way of gaining, as against alienating, viewers.
You might think that they would actually reduce the commercial beaks to win us, our eyes and our attention to their sponsors. You might think this, but you would be wrong.
They seem to believe that their prestige and broadcast bona fides depend on following the same commercial model as their large, established, legacy companies.
We will tolerate some finite amount of intrusion in exchange for being entertained. The key word is finite. At some point, we will turn away.
We will turn off, tune out and go someplace else.
The enemy is not the recorder or skipping technology. In the immortal words of Pogo "We have met the enemy and he is us." Look to your selves mighty media, lest you create a brave new world consisting of nothing but piano playing cats on YouTube.
(Jonathan Dobrer is an op-ed contributor to the Daily News and Friendly Fire and is a syndicated columnist. This column was posted first at Friendly Fire. More on Jonathan and his books at www.Dobrer.com) –cw
Tags: Jonathan Dobrer, media, commercials, skip commercials, contract with public
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 54
Pub: July 6, 2012