First the story

According to a report in The Australian, Channel Seven and Channel Nine are lobbying the government to increase the amount of ads they’re allowed to show you. Currently, the networks can’t broadcast more than 15 minutes of ads every hour.

But Seven and Nine want to increase that to 20 minutes. Which means one in every three minutes on commercial TV would be spent schilling yoghurt, insurance, cars or the network’s own never-ending line-up of reality fare.

The proposal is being bandied about within the free-to-air TV industry body Free TV, with Seven and Nine strongly in favour and Network Ten strongly opposed.

Rest of story here.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/longer-tv-ad-breaks-could-you-handle-20-minutes-of-ads-every-hour/story-fnki1jcy-1227027946227

Instead of making a coffee during the adds I will be able to cook a whole meal.

<<Instead of making a coffee during the adds I will be able to cook a whole meal>>

ROFL ...can relate to that.

Actually, I suspect that in the not too distant future the whole idea of TV channels will be a thing of the past.

Agreed, SPQR.

>>I suspect that in the not too distant future the whole idea of TV channels will be a thing of the past.<<

This is a last-gasp exercise to squeeze the last few dollars out of a dead franchise.

Foxtel will be the next to go, victim of its own overweening greed.

Just wondering SPQR and Pericles, if both free to air TV and Foxtel 'go', what do you consider people at home will be watching?

I would be horrified if those commercial stations had even more commercials.
I imagine that their financial interests will prevail however.

I predominantly watch Foxtel, and rarely go over to commercial stations, so if these increased adverts come to pass, I will be there even less.

Oops, wrong thread, sorry 'bout dat.

It'll drive some people around the bend, let's hope those who deserve it will cop it.

Cable tv came out highlighting NO advertisements that changed so I suspect if tv gets more advert time the cable companies will up the amount they put on.

There are already a few options Suseonline.

>>Just wondering SPQR and Pericles, if both free to air TV and Foxtel 'go', what do you consider people at home will be watching?<<

Foxtel's market dominance - and the resultant massive price-gouging - is creating an opportunity for vastly cheaper subscription services to replace them, only this time via the internet, or through your phone.

I already have the canary in that particular coalmine, in the shape of a Chromecast dongle.

http://www.google.com/intl/en_au/chrome/devices/chromecast/index.html?utm_source=chromecast.com#cc-apps

Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and no doubt many others will soon be delivering services vastly superior to the current crop via this and other similar devices.

Add to this the convenience of not being tied to a schedule, and the current model will soon be dead as a doornail...

Pericles, "I already have the canary in that particular coalmine, in the shape of a Chromecast dongle"

Thanks for the heads up. It will be interesting to know how that works out for you.

It's early days onthebeach.

>>It will be interesting to know how that works out for you.<<

More important than its technical capability is the fact that it introduces genuine competition within subscription television for the very first time in Australia. A quick glance at the numbers shows that we are being seriously gouged by the present set-up - Foxtel's most recent result, $576m on $3.14 billion revenues, gives some indication of their rapacity.

We love creating monopolies in this country for some reason. Then we admire the business acumen of the song-and-dance men who run the monopolies, milking us blind in the process, as if they are some kind of business genius.

Most puzzling.

I actually don't care.

I'll still be watching my favourite shows -
and I suspect that I won't be alone in this.
When your work entails heavy mental lifting -
there's nothing like a good murder mystery,
crime show, or reality TV, to simply veg out
with. (Of course I'll still be watching the
ABC with relish) - that goes without saying!

Well I don't care either. There is so little left on TV that I can be bothered watching, that I rarely watch it.

Unlike you Foxy, I find drama means lots of shouting, especially on ABC drama. Their idea it appears is quality drama means louder shouting.

I see enough stupidity in real life to watch reality TV, & I have never been able to sit through movies.

You can no longer trust any documentary on the ABC or SBS to be anything but propaganda. The last thing of quality on the ABC was Catalyst. May it's original ethic rest in peace, as it is also merely propaganda.

This leaves us with only Mythbusters & RPA, with the occasional Top Gear for a laugh. I did try 24 hours in emergency, but found it too depressing to see what a waste of space so many of their clients were.

My news now comes from the net.

Yes, thanks for that Pericles.
I actually get annoyed with having to pay Foxtel for channels I don't watch, and look forward to the day when I can pick and choose exactly what I want to watch.....without adverts.