Lets start this off by reminding you that the airways are a public resource. Or to say it another way -the public owns it! The public via its government then rents out the rights to TV station owners to broadcast on the airways. One might just think that the broadcasters would operate in the public's interest given that the public owns the airways. One would be wrong.
The broadcasters operate in their own interests and their licenses are in fact legal permissions to print money. Yes, they need to follow certain rules. Basically they need to take in revenue to cover the costs of the license and the costs associated with providing and delivering content and their profit. They make all this money by charging businesses for advertising. The more they charge the more money they make. What a wonderful business! Its like printing money only legal!
The slower ones out there will not see the problem at this point. You faster ones will. You see, its in the interests of the public to enjoy content NOT to listen to advertising. If you are watching a movie you want to see the movie - if you are watching a cooking show you want to see the cooking show. But the TV station wants to run advertising because that's where they make their money.
And the problem gets worse. Actually it gets much worse. The advertisers want you to buy their products or services. They don't give a crap about the content other than the obvious fact that the more people who are watching the content means more people will see their advertisements. The TV station understands this too so they charge more for advertising on more popular shows. Those producers and actors who produce the content understand the math and so want more for more popular programs which in turn means that the advertisers pay even more and then want more of your time! Its an evil business. Its like a dog with diarrhea chasing its tail. Faster and faster he goes and more and more shit gets spread around. Yuk! (That is a particularly disgusting metaphor and I am sorry for it!)
Now it starts to get ugly. If the show is popular and you really want to see it, the TV station and advertisers prefer that you watch their advertisements instead!
TV has become a contest in greed and stupidity. Those making the money are hopeful that the public will remain as stupid as possible to put up with countless commercials during the programming and then even trot out and buy the usually silly things advertised. Advertising has become a pack of lies. Each year advertisers make billions of dollars coming up with advertisements trying to sell you stuff that mostly you don't need or want.
An advertiser will infer but not claim that their product will do the service. They will infer that if you smear their product on your skin that you will subsequently need to beat vixen women off with a stick. They will infer that if you buy their vehicle your life will be complete that if you buy their weight loss product that you will return to the days of your slim and vigorous youth. That if you dress in their clothes that you will be successful in everything you do. Lies Lies and more lies.
Now fast forward to the situation that Canadians face today. Most of us obtain our TV via cable. We pay for that cable. We pay a lot for it. In the old days all one needed was an antenna and the reception was FREE. But not today as all of the broadcasting is done via cable which we pay dearly for. I won't even get into the cable rip offs of which there are many. The point here is that we pay for a service and then when we try to watch a program we get hit with a HUGE number of advertisements and so effectively we pay for it again.
There is one word for this situation. What do you think that word might be? Is the word "wonderful". I'll give you a hint - think about what this website is all about. Think hard. Is the word "great" ? Think harder! Its coming into focus now isn't it?
(The word is Bullshit.)
The reason that they are getting away with it is due to the stupidity of the average Canadian when it comes to advertising on the media. We good natured yuks are so out of touch with reality that we don't even know when we are being taken to the cleaners. The average Canuck will plop his or her fat bum on the couch and watch 30 or more hours of TV each week making it their second job! Some people actually watch more TV than their number of work hours. With the advent of wide screen and digital signals Canadians are converting to the big screens and are spending billions of dollars for equipment. Of that 30 hours of TV how many hours of advertising do we see?
Here are the rules (taken from the CRTC website)
TV stations
- until August 31, 2007, the limit is 12 minutes of advertising material in each clock hour of the broadcast day
- September 1, 2007, the limit will increase from 12 minutes to 14 minutes per hour in the prime time period, which is between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m.
- September 1, 2008, the limit will increase to 15 minutes per hour during the broadcast day
- September 1, 2009, there will no longer be time limits
As you can see the shit hits the fan so to speak on September 1, 2009 when there are NO LIMITS to the amount of advertising that a broadcaster can have. Its easier to understand if the limits are expressed in percentages rather than in minutes.
Most Canadians are so poor at Math that they are unable to calculate percentages. So let me do it for you. If you are watching advertising 15 minutes out of every hour and you might recall there are 60 minutes in an hour then you are spending 25% of your time watching adverts or in the case of the average household about 7.5 hours a week or one full working day watching nothing but advertising. No wonder your brains are cooked! No wonder you are brainwashed into thinking that you need all that shit you just bought on your credit card.
There is an easy solution. Cancel your cable. Buy a DVD player. Problem solved. You can buy lots of DVDs for what you pay monthly for cable and you can even trade them. Will it ever happen?
Absolutely not. The bullshit will continue to roll on and advertisers will continue to have free reign to the inner reaches of your brains and YOU will pay for it.
Its all.... Bullshit!
update Nov 30/2007
A friend pointed out that before cable he got his TV for free via an antenna He has some good ideas on the subject so I will just copy them here!
..."There was a tv in every home and we watched the shows that were presented to us and it didn't cost up a penny; except for the cost of the television and rabbit ears. TV was free because the advertising paid for the program we watched. Then there was a technological breakthrough and cable was born. The concept of cable is good: paying for commercial free channels. But why do we have to pay for the channels that have commercials? It can't cost the local cable companies that much money to pull television signals out of the air.If a channel is commercial free, then, by all means, charge a fee. But channels with commercials (which is the majority) should not cost the consumer a cent. Many would probably argue that the fees charged by the local cable companies is used to bring quality programming into our homes. The problem is there almost no quality programming on TV. It's all BULLSHIT."I think the main point here is that cable companies are adding a layer of cost to the consumer but are not providing an amount of additional value to offset that cost. So the so called technological innovation is really just a rip off in the marketplace. Not unlike cellular phone service in Canada where the crooks running the show are charging twice what they charge in the USA. Paying the money and getting a service is one thing -paying the money and getting ripped off is...bullshit!
Update January 4/2009 Now as you may have realized by reading this and other pages on this website I didn't get to where I am today by simply letting water run under the bridge and saying nothing. No -that is not my style. I feel this inner urge to make a comment. To take a sharp stick and poke it into some sensitive area and that takes us to products that I see are being heavily advertised on TV near dinner or lunch times; feminine napkins and donations for leprosy and malnutrition. I try so hard to be fair. But when I sit in front of the TV with my porridge or salad or other nutritious, tasty meal and I get hit with a young girl with leprosy showing her stumps for fingers and pathetically asking "who will marry me" I do draw the line. Show the damn thing later AFTER people eat. Ditto with feminine pads. I realize the advertisers are simply trying to make an honest buck and I have no problems with that but seeing some poor little kid with a distended belly and flies on his face as I am trying to scarf down my meal or watching a leak test on feminine pads while I am trying to wolf down some spaghetti is enough to make me puke. What really upsets me is that I know that the advertisers know exactly what effect this will have on people and they do it anyway.
please take me back to the index or a dark corner to crawl into
