As Amazon becomes the latest platform to push an ad-supported tier, TV writers greet this retro model with frustration and, in some cases, disdain: “I thought 'Nine Perfect Strangers' with commercials was horrible,” says David E. Kelley of his Hulu show with breaks.
It is worse than broadcast.
If you learn anything about screenwriting, there are certain patterns and structures you follow (like acts in a play) to accommodate commercials, like to build suspense and keep the viewer interested and not changing the channel.
Streaming never had this, if you look at shows written for these platforms. The writers either ignored or didn’t even know about these conventions.
Now adding commercials later, it is even more annoying to the viewer as the original material was not meant to accommodate them.
Streaming just keeps fucking up. I already canceled my netflix. I’m on basic cable for network tv and I just pirate everything else.
Wait… They add advertising in the middle of shows? I thought it would be at the beginning, between episodes, on the UI, etc.
Nope, it’s classic ad breaks, but since the shows weren’t made expecting them the ads just appear suddenly every X minutes instead.
By streamers ignoring all the decades of broadcasting experience, and all established what’s fair air-time for both content and commercial. That’s the frustration… they’re rewriting standards… “my company, my content, my timings, my bottom-line”. And doing it poorly. And at top speed.
And with streaming, you’re not locked into a 42-47 minute long episode either, so are some episodes going to have more, or is there someone with a stop watch going “this seems like a good place for an ad break”?
Why are you on basic cable for network tv? It’s broadcast over the air in HD for free.
Some people live in areas with poor service even with beefy antennas.
Get an hdhomerun or equivalent for local TV at home in a streaming format. It even integrates into Plex for DVR.
A cheaper solution (if you’re already running a server) would be TVheadend and a cheap USB-dongle for DVB-T, DVB-C or DVB-S.