Commentary

Digital TV Viewing: Not Just Ad Blocking, But Consumer-Blocking

by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 1, 2015

The growth of digital ad blocker technology has made the world of TV commercial avoidance even more complicated.

But traditional TV companies are on to this. Hulu (with Walt Disney, 21st Century Fox, and Comcast’s NBCUniversal as co-equity partners), and CBS won’t let viewers see TV programs if they have advertising-blocking technology on their browsers.

This isn’t the endgame -- for either consumers or TV media companies. Lots of digital iewing of premium TV shows occurs in apps, on connected TV, on video-on-demand platforms and through set-top boxes, places where you can’t fast-forward through those commercials.

Remember Dish Network and Autohop, the service that can eliminate prime-time commercials from the four major TV networks? You don’t hear much about that anymore -- because almost all the major network groups have come to terms with Dish through carriage negotiations and other business dealings.

Many traditional and new TV providers don’t want to turn away potential TV viewers -- even if some are using ad-blocking technology. TV networks make some money from digital advertising sales -- but presently, not much. Long-term there will be strong reaction for sure.

So according to brand entertainment folks, putting brands into scripted content is the future way to go --- even if those deals take a long time to put together, can be expensive and/or not deliver enough scale for one’s target audience.

Adding more complication are the slow-moving TV Everywhere efforts -- mobile and connected TV apps, uneven video on demand platforms/executions. More adoption of TV Everywhere digital consumption would seemingly slow down the ad-blockers.

Even then, you can take heart that someone is working on software right now to perhaps avoid the next generation of TV commercials running on connected TV, mobile apps or VOD platforms.

Media leaks in the TV ecosystem are everywhere. And here’s the biggest fear among content makers: Savvier TV consumers will continue to look for new ways to avoid TV commercials.

3 comments about "Digital TV Viewing: Not Just Ad Blocking, But Consumer-Blocking ".

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Patty Ardis from Ardis Media, LLC, September 1, 2015 at 5:21 p.m.

A couple of reasons why the savvy consumer is looking to avoid commercials is that there are just too many of them crowding programming. Combined with the fact that many commercials are not good and not relevant to the person or people viewing them and clearly this is a cry for change! It is time that we in the industry respect the rights of the viewers or risk being left behind.

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, September 1, 2015 at 6:51 p.m.

Why cant we stop making statements like "lots of digital viewing of premium TV shows occurs in apps, on conected TV, etc. etc " without backing this up with a few statistics? How many viewers are reached this way? How often do they watch? How much time do they spend doing so?, etc. In other words, how important is the issue being discussed from a quantitative standpoint?

Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, September 1, 2015 at 7:37 p.m.

The more they stuff pods with ads, the more people will try to escape. There is a solution, but greed gets in the way.