Disney’s Bob Iger Defends Ads But Won’t Bash Dish Network’s Auto Hop, Yet: Video

COMMENTS (8)

• Say what you want but he is the smartest one in the room.

  Comment by captainlashout — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 7:39pm EDT  Reply to this post

• Does he think we don’t skip through ads on our existing DVR playlist? C’mon now.

  Comment by what the — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 8:53pm EDT  Reply to this post

• This should upset the ad agencies way more than the networks, most viewers hate commercials, all 10,000 per half hour show, lol, so product placement and embedded advertising will soon have to become the new normal. The networks will always have clear cut revenue streams, all they have to do is pull their heads out of their asses and think creatively! Crazy huh?

  Comment by Master of the Universe — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 10:12pm EDT  Reply to this post

  • Or, the episode orders will shrink a little each year, remember back in the 50′s when a full season order was much more than today? Less episodes, more repeats. The cable channels do it all the time.

    Comment by lsb — Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 11:31pm EDT  Reply to this post

• For several years now, the Topfield range of DVRs have had the capability of incorporating user-written applications (‘taps’). One of the most popular assigns functions to the colored handset buttons allowing the user to skip forward choosing increments of 3 minutes, 1 minute, 30 seconds… so in terms of innovation, that ship’s already sailed.

  Commercial success is for those who understand the consumers’ needs. Not those who require the consumer to conform to theirs.

  Comment by Steve — Wednesday May 23, 2012 @ 3:33am EDT  Reply to this post

• I don’t understand the problem here. When advertisers buy their preferred slots, I assume, they do so under the assumption that their ads are going to be seen by those watching the show “live” (on its regular day and time) not on a DVR. I don’t understand how Dish’s hopper affects that. Most people who own DVRs skip the ads on their own and those who don’t, at least in my case, don’t do so because they’re doing something else, which usually means we’re probably not paying attention in the first place. It’s a silly argument that companies are now standing behind to justify decreasing ad sales.

  Comment by J.A. — Wednesday May 23, 2012 @ 8:01am EDT  Reply to this post

  • The currency by which advertisers measure the value of their spots is ACM3, or the average of all commercial minutes viewed, live plus 3 days of DVR playback. Believe it or not, not everyone zaps the breaks on playback. In fact, there are several examples of programs that deliver a higher average of all commercial viewers via ACM than live. As to attentiveness, it’s always hard to determine, since the evidence is all anecdotal.

    As to results of the Hopper, if commercial zapping increases as a consequence of the improved technology, cable services will require higher sub fees from systems in order to maintain margins. There used to be an implied tradeoff in TV: you get the programs for “free” and have to watch the spots as payback. Once cable began to charge for the channels themselves, all bets were off.

    Comment by Paw — Wednesday May 23, 2012 @ 11:56am EDT  Reply to this post

• Just wait until Dish starts selling their own ads.

  Comment by Reggie — Wednesday May 23, 2012 @ 3:39pm EDT  Reply to this post