Kids in “Netflix Only” Homes Are Being Saved from 230 Hours of Commercials a Year

Megalith

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In 2017, instead of watching traditional children’s television like Saturday morning cartoons or after-school specials, more kids than ever are using streaming services like Netflix for their entertainment. It has been determined that they are saved from just over 230 hours of commercials a year when compared to traditional television viewership homes.

Children are watching 2.68 hours of television a day (in some cases, up to nine hours). The average hour of television contains 14.25 minutes of commercials, or about 24% of airtime. With that in mind, if a kid were watching traditional television, they would be seeing 230 hours of commercials a year, or 9.6 days.
 
I like the Netherlands approach to child programming.
 
My kids don't know what commercials are - they grew up with Netflix and streaming video. The very few times they saw commercials, they didn't understand them and hated them.
On a recent trip, I was watching a little TV at a hotel. I was amazed at how many commercials I had to sit through! I was watching COPS. I bet it was at least 50% commercials. Screw that.
As a kid, I remember liking a few commercials - Kenner Toys had Star Wars toys. GI Joe's came out. Hubba Bubba bubble gum - remember the cowboy? Plus, can't forgot the Micromachine guy.
 
My kids don't know what commercials are - they grew up with Netflix and streaming video. The very few times they saw commercials, they didn't understand them and hated them.
On a recent trip, I was watching a little TV at a hotel. I was amazed at how many commercials I had to sit through! I was watching COPS. I bet it was at least 50% commercials. Screw that.
As a kid, I remember liking a few commercials - Kenner Toys had Star Wars toys. GI Joe's came out. Hubba Bubba bubble gum - remember the cowboy? Plus, can't forgot the Micromachine guy.

We are down to 21min of programming in a 30min block, 42min for a 1 hour block. Yes that is a 3min commercial break every 7min, its maddening.
 
We are down to 21min of programming in a 30min block, 42min for a 1 hour block. Yes that is a 3min commercial break every 7min, its maddening.

No kidding. When I'm stuck out of town for work, the cable TV drives me mad. Commercials and nothing to watch! I have not and do not plan to have cable or satellite TV in my home.
 
Easy solution for advertisements: Put them in the cartoons and tv shows with edits!
 
We are down to 21min of programming in a 30min block, 42min for a 1 hour block. Yes that is a 3min commercial break every 7min, its maddening.

Worse, they often break after only a couple minutes of show to run a 1 minute commercial, then back to the show for a random duration. Have seen 3 or 4 commercial breaks in a 10 minute run. If it is a show I want to watch, DVR. Wonder if the rising rates of ADD in kids is due in part to the short runs of actual show between the many commercial breaks. TV might be conditioning the kids that they only have to pay attention for a few minutes at a time.
 
They only have themselves to blame. When you literally have 5 minutes of commercials every 5 minutes of a program, it makes it unwatchable.

Commercials is the main reason I cut the cord back in 13. I subscribed to Sling TV last year just to have some live TV and canceled after a few months because again, fucking commercials. Literally half the program is commercials now.
 
I can't remember the last time I seen a cartoon on a regular network channel on Saturday morning. Now there are cartoon only channels so I guess CBS and ABC etc just said piss on it. We were going to watch the Grinch and stuff (normally played a week or less before Christmas) but they showed all of that the day before Thanksgiving or some damn shit. Well, let's stream it then Honey... Good grief!

My kids don't know what commercials are - they grew up with Netflix and streaming video. The very few times they saw commercials, they didn't understand them and hated them.
On a recent trip, I was watching a little TV at a hotel. I was amazed at how many commercials I had to sit through! I was watching COPS. I bet it was at least 50% commercials. Screw that.
As a kid, I remember liking a few commercials - Kenner Toys had Star Wars toys. GI Joe's came out. Hubba Bubba bubble gum - remember the cowboy? Plus, can't forgot the Micromachine guy.

Until my son turned 6 he was totally pissed! He thought it was all my fault. "Dad!!!!!!! What did you do??" lol.

Worse, they often break after only a couple minutes of show to run a 1 minute commercial, then back to the show for a random duration. Have seen 3 or 4 commercial breaks in a 10 minute run. If it is a show I want to watch, DVR. Wonder if the rising rates of ADD in kids is due in part to the short runs of actual show between the many commercial breaks. TV might be conditioning the kids that they only have to pay attention for a few minutes at a time.

And have you seen some kids during commercial breaks? As soon as the commercial comes on, their trance turns to a pure energy explosion until the show comes back on. What you say wouldn't susprise me at all, though probably just need less screen time and more play time.

That's all I had to say, hehe.
 
Netflix didn't say that you waste another 30-60 seconds watching the intro song. How many seconds do you waste watching the opening of Spongebob Squarepants, Transformers (1980s), GI Joe A Real American Hero (1980s), etc...
 
While the value or problems of the programming are still in question, the constant bombardment of commercials trying to shape the wants and needs of youth being cut most certainly is a good thing. Most of these commercials only create useless consumerism and social headaches for their parents and society in general. Sure you can make the argument that it's what makes the economy turn, but at what price and who is collecting the loot.

Easy solution for advertisements: Put them in the cartoons and tv shows with edits!

"Product Placement" has been prevalent for decades now, and it will only become more so. Remember you used to see generic names for cereal and drinks in shows, now you see specific product names because those products are paying for the placement in the shows.

Netflix didn't say that you waste another 30-60 seconds watching the intro song. How many seconds do you waste watching the opening of Spongebob Squarepants, Transformers (1980s), GI Joe A Real American Hero (1980s), etc...

The "Skip Intro" button within a couple seconds of an intro playing is great on Netflix.
 
Netflix didn't say that you waste another 30-60 seconds watching the intro song. How many seconds do you waste watching the opening of Spongebob Squarepants, Transformers (1980s), GI Joe A Real American Hero (1980s), etc...
Luckily kids have time. The time is not the problem but the advertisements they're being subjected to. In my country it's illegal to target children with ad campaigns because children are so easy targets.

For the same reason I hate games that have in game purchases, loot boxes etc. Kids get addicted too easy to this stuff.
 
It may be true for Netflix, but Hulu is riddled with ads. Many of them are for pills.
 
I havn't sat there and watched a full TV ad in... I have no idea. Years? I'm sure I've been subjected to a few in waiting rooms or something but being forced to sit through one and listen to it in my own home? No.

I have absolutely no idea what TV ads are common right now, or what ads are playing in any theater. It's glorious. I really have no idea how I put up with that crap. Couldn't and wouldn't go back to it now. Not ever.
 
Commercials muddy products to begin with. Which is better Product A or Product B? Product B maybe better but Product A has a shit load of advertising. In the end, Product A sells much more due to mind share. Which means companies are too busy pumping money into advertising instead of making a better product. And we also suffer having to watch their commercials that is literally designed to program us into buying their shit.
 
Saving kids from commercials?

Not a chance in the world, subliminal advertising in all video content now, even cartoons..
More like saving adults from commercials, and saving children from adult baby sitting time.
 
That can only be a good thing.

Not really.
These kids will never build up a resistance to commercials, and will grow up to be snowflakes influenced by commercials as adults.
 
My oldest daughter was probably about 9 before she saw her first commercial at a friends house. She came home asking what they were and why anyone would want to sit through them. We had been using SageTV since she was born and skipping the commercials.

The downside I guess is that they never had a long list of things they wanted for birthdays and Christmas and getting them to think of ideas has always been like pulling teeth.
 
Imagine if that number was for sports programs, it would possibly be more hours of commercials than actual entertainment.
 
We are down to 21min of programming in a 30min block, 42min for a 1 hour block. Yes that is a 3min commercial break every 7min, its maddening.

It's actually less since most shows don't show any of their ending credits on television so you can chop off another 1-2 minutes there easily.
 
In Australia I grew up without commercials too - that’s not because of a private company like Netflix, but because many of the good cartoons were shown on the major public broadcaster’s channels!
 
we have been without cable tv for many years now. I have thought a couple times about maybe picking it up again due to the simplicity of not having to have multiple streaming accounts/services. but without fail me and the wife will be out of town and in a motel and i might turn on the tv in the room and start channel surfing and it doesnt take long for me to get disgusted again with the sheer amount of ads. Once, i kid you not, i was able to flip through the channels for like 20 minutes and never once did i see the show.. nope it was changing the channel from one commercial to another
 
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