Richard Hawley

Was watching Louis Theroux on the Dave channel earlier and he was in the middle of talking to someone when they just cut to the buffer. i hate this, the way they don't seem to have any idea of when would be a good moment to take a pause.

It's like no on cares any more. They bombard you with sponsors, product placement, cut to the ads before the opening credits have rolled. How the hell is anyone supposed to watch TV any more. I know it's been argued that there's nothing worth watching anyway, and it's becoming much harder to find something to hold your attention, but when you're constantly having to mute the adverts, it makes it hard to follow something for an hour. And they all cut to the ads at the same time. I would have thought they would stagger it so that if you're flicking through when one channel is on the ads, you might start watching another channel and they would get you that way, but you can't even do that.

Don't get me started on the 'credit squeeze' and the banner where they tell you what's on next while you're still watching the previous prog. Don't we have a TV guide? And it's always something shit. You never think, 'Oh, that's on, great, i would have missed it otherwise, thanks Virgin 1!'

I know this probably isn't news to anyone, but i just had a bit of a TV meltdown.

Christ knows what it will be like in another 20 years...

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There's something in the distance
a glorious existence

I have certainly noticed the Satalite age TV syndrome of every damn channel scheduling their add breaks at the same time and have adds ever been as long or as frequent ? it pisses me off too and probably why i watch so little TV these days I just get bored halfway of all the interuptions.

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I saw an elsebound train, on the overpass
In the driving rain, every ticket costs the same
For where you can't go
Mustang horses, champagne glasses
Anything frail anything wild
It's the price of living motion, what's beautiful is broken
And grace is just the measure of a fall.

Its a real pain!

But inconvenient ad breaks at silly points in programmes are nothing new - I'm working my way through loads of Dragnet episodes from the 50's - they have the opening credits then the usual prelim about "this is the city, I'm a cop"........... then they start on what the story is about with an outline of the place and date............. so then about 30 seconds into the actual programme they go for an ad break promoting cigarettes

So you watch them saying how smooth a smoke this brand is compared to other brands and then it eventually starts with the actual story.......... absolutely ridiculous and totally pointless!

I timed it the other day - I was watching something or other on freeview and there were six minutes of adverts altogether - drives me mad!!

There used to be restrictions on how many breaks and how long they could last but I believe they were lifted recently. I daresay those who insert the breaks don't even watch the programme, just skim through it and think ah, split it here and sod whether the continuity makes sense.

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There's a raven in the distance, his inscription's all around you, you can't hide

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There's still rules and regs but they're less strict for satellite/cable than ITV and C4's main channels.

The rules and norm being different in countries/channels of origin also causes problems when they're re-edited. e.g. Louis Theroux originally edited for BBC without ads would be edited totally differently from the start had it been meant for a transmission including ads.

The problem is that most of the time these programmes are used for cheapness but editing it carefully adds to the cost - not what the broadcaster wants so it'll all be done, however clumsily, at the specified time.

I wouldn't like my view of Louis Theroux interupted either..............

He's not too bad, in a slightly geeky way.

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There's something in the distance
a glorious existence