So last night, we’re three quarters through yet another now shitty episode of the once-brilliant Heroes and what do we see a few minutes after a commercial break? No, not one of those banners that promotes some new show that will likely suck or some news tease that will make it impossible for us not to “stay tuned for more” at 11. No, we see a big black banner fill the bottom fourth of the screen touting the new Denzel Washington, Russel Crowe movie American Gangster. WTF?
So this is what it’s come to, people. The nets aren’t going to take any more of our ad skipping shit and they’re now going to bombard us not only with annoying in-program promotions but with ,annoying, unskippable in-program ad banners. Apparently taking a cue from YouTube’s video advertising efforts, NBC is going to get is ad revenue no matter what it takes.
While we can’t fault a media company for protecting its revenue stream, it’s beginning to reach the point of insanity. Watching a show recorded on a DVR is now going to be just as annoying as watching one live with commercials. Maybe worse. With old-school commercials, at least you could miss the ads by getting up to take a piss or grabbing something out of the fridge. No longer. And this isn’t the last (and likely it’s not the first) we’ll see of these DVR-fighting tactics. Protecting that revenue stream is a very powerful motivator.
Sorry, we didn’t get an actual screenshot of the banner.
