The advent of streaming TV is reshaping the cable industry. It is slowly dripping video subscribers while Netflix adds more, and several online TV alternatives have launched in recent months. Why are people cutting the cord? Simple, time & money.
Perhaps no bigger person is responsible for people turning off their TV’s than Floo the Progressive advertising personality. Their annoying commercials constantly interrupt what’s left of good TV to remind us all why we hate TV and the networks. But it goes a lot deeper than that. Cable bills, with premium programming, have become outrageously expensive, but even with premium channels how many times can you watch the same movie over and over?
To be honest, today’s consumers just don’t have the time to watch 43 minutes of the Blacklist when 17 minutes are commercials. It’s easy to record it and skip the spots or to pay a $1.99 on iTunes to watch it commercial free. Commercials do serve a purpose, though, they allow us to pick up our iPad’s and check email, social media or surf the web.
Is there anything that can reverse these trends?
The answer to that would be yes. It entails the networks investing good money in quality programs rather than the garbage that’s on now. It means that they need to say “no” to repeated commercials over and over and force advertisers to do a lot better job of developing advertising that actually makes people want to pay attention rather than roll their eyes and say “not again”.
If advertisers make the mistake of going where people are going to watch their favorite TV programs they are going to drive more and more people away. We love to be entertained, but when we are interrupted in the middle of great entertainment, so Flo can sell us insurance it’s pissing us off and forcing us to say “it’s just not worth it, let’s cut the cord”.
