
Will cable TV be invaded by commercials? (1981) - ctoth
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/will-cable-tv-be-invaded-by-commercials.html
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fisherjeff
Q: Will X be invaded by ads?

A: Almost definitely.

Even some major automakers seem to assume that the car of the future will
include ads.[0] Amazing that car companies could’ve survived all these decades
without them!

[0] [https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/10/15947784/audi-25th-
hour-a...](https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/10/15947784/audi-25th-hour-
autonomous-car-driving-work-time)

~~~
makecheck
I thought I’d seen it all until _gas pumps_ started having loud auto-playing
videos. I consider it one of the benefits of an electric car that I no longer
see gas pump ads.

And this stuff always seems to hit “lowest common denominator” quickly. Once
consumer-hostile methods prove some kind of worth, everyone seems to follow
suit to compete (or just be as greedy).

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dan000892
For those still subjected to these who don’t know: Most video-enabled pumps in
the US can be muted by pressing the second button from the top on the column
of four buttons to the right of the display.

I consider it a small quality of life improvement to not hear the same Seth
Meyers joke two or three times while fueling.

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fzzzy
I try this every single time and it’s never worked.

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rconti
I've never visited a gas station with ads more than once.

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maxxxxx
In my area you'd run out of gas stations quickly with this strategy :-)

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jdofaz
My gym has guideless basic cable on the cardio machines. Anytime I channel
surf I would estimate more than 50% of the 70ish channels are running
commercials. Same when i stay at a hotel with cable. I’m surprised anyone is
still willing pay for this.

Thankfully the new machines at my gym have Netflix.

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plaguuuuuu
You really have a TV on each machine at your gym? This is peak America

~~~
sumedh
> You really have a TV on each machine at your gym? This is peak America

Some of the gyms in Melbourne Australia have TVs on all the treadmill
machines. I am talking about normal gyms not some high end fancy gyms.

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rconti
> To date, the actual revenues from cable advertising, which totaled about $45
> million last year, are minuscule compared with the $11 billion for over-the-
> air television networks and stations. But scores of big companies, including
> General Foods, American Express, Procter & Gamble and Pepsico, are already
> cable advertisers, along with innumerable used-car dealers and other local
> businesses that can afford cable's relatively low rates. By 1990, according
> to Paul Kagan, publisher of several cable industry newsletters, cable
> advertising could exceed $2 billion.

Stunning.

We didn't have cable until the late 90s, and I don't have pay TV anymore,
largely for this reason. "Premium" things are always dumbed down. First comes
the ads, then the censorship. I'm not willing to pay for ad-laden, censored
content, full stop. I happily pay for Spotify, but I won't pay for cable TV or
XM.

~~~
flatline
XM was an interesting note there at the end. I realize they are still subject
to FCC regulation but they seem mostly add free and uncensored.

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yuhong
The entire debt-based economy is based on extracting more money from
consumers. Worth mentioning is this is not long after stagflation occurred in
the late 1970s. As a side note, I have a strong feeling that in large
corporations like Google expenses always tends to increase with revenue. One
example would be housing and salaries, but there are probably others.

~~~
al_chemist
What does "debt-based" have to do with extracting money?

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hammock
When money is easy, the incentives switch to increasing consumption, rather
than investment in increasing productivity. Why spend time and money inventing
a better mousetrap when you could just buy ten more of them?

The principle applies at every level of the economy (individual, corporate,
government etc)

~~~
Nasrudith
I don't quite see how that follows necessarily - high investment allows for
maximizing per unit costs compared to "paycheck to paycheck". Not that
consumer debt bubbles aren't a thing.

~~~
yuhong
In this case, we have been running a trade deficit since the 1970s.

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Nasrudith
It is a world reserve currency as well making a deficit pretty much inevitable
as long as it holds. Getting goods in exchange for spreading your currency's
reach sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Effectively it gives a "virtual
economy size" from worldwide dollar users over just producing for the local
economy - not doing so in response would be deflationary. They need some sort
of goods or services in exchange so the economic backing is provided for any
outflowing currency.

~~~
yuhong
The point is that it destroys local manufacturing though, leading to more and
more goods being imported.

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TomMckenny
>Although cable television was never conceived of as television without
commercial interruption, there has been a widespread impression...

Cable companies, even though they now act as ISPs, where never conceived to
track you browsing history and do with it what they will. And somehow there's
a wide spread assumption that they won't.

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jimmaswell
This is strange. I've consistently heard that it was a total myth cable was
ever ad-free.

~~~
flyinghamster
I remember the early-1980s cable landscape, when the only "cable" channels
were what we could call premium channels now: HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, The
Movie Channel, etc.; all the other channels were local over-the-air stations.

~~~
icedchai
We got cable in 1981 and it was exactly this. None of the “cable” (premium)
channels had ads. Some of them, like Nickelodeon, did add ads in the late
80’s.

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jrrrr
The existence of cable ads is useful to me when my ISP tries to upsell me on
television service.

"Cable? I haven't had that for about fifteen years. Does it still have ads?"

"Yes, sir."

"No thanks, then!"

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HocusLocus
Will bears sell toilet paper in the woods?

~~~
EADGBE
This is one of the wittiest replies I've seen here.

Downvotes must have been because they didn't get it.

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0x8BADF00D
Wait until BCIs like Neuralink come out. Then there will be no way to escape
ads.

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dtech
Apparently, Betteridge's law of headlines doesn't always hold up.

On a more serious note, it will be interesting to see if currently, ad-free
on-demand services will undergo the same transition.

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codezero
Amazon Prime includes “ads” for their own shows. I call them ads because they
are on before the show I’m watching and I don’t want to watch them. Luckily,
for now, I can still skip them.

~~~
isostatic
I thought I noticed that on an Amazon fire. It doesn't happen on my lg tv
though.

