WHO: Showtime
WHAT: Showtime is promoting the upcoming shows by playing banner ads during movies that you paid to watch.
WHERE: Customer Service email
THE QUOTE: “While some viewers may be displeased with this tactic, we have found that a number of our subscribers appreciate learning about the premiere of a series in such a manner. Nevertheless, please note that we take your comments very seriously and have forwarded your concerns to the appropriate people. Thank you for writing to us.”
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Whatever, I HATE HATE HATE that shit. I hate it during network movies, too. I hate it during TV shows. Hate. It.
They always seem to put the ad banners on when there are subtitles you need to read, or maybe when they are showing a time/place title for the scene… Plus, it’s annoyingly distracting. And it jars you out of your escapism, which is why I watch TV/movies anyway.
Wait, this was an ad for another show on SHowtime, or for a product? Cause the first is okay, the second is not.
@cde: The promo is for another show on Showtime. The point is that as a paying Showtime subscriber, I’ve already purchased *both* show they’re interrupting, *and* the show they’re promoting. To impact their bottom line, they would have to run their promos on HBO.
@DeeJayQueue: the thing is, though, you’d think that they could come up with at least a better lie. No customer in the history of purchasing has ever thought “you know what I’d like? More commercials!” And no one believes that such a person exists.
I removed Showtime years ago after they cancelled “Dead Like Me” to save a few bucks even though it received good ratings and I realized the remainder of their line up catered heavily to homosexuals.
So, if they’d rather have the number of subscribers that appreciate that feature, you obviously don’t belong to their preferred customer base and should cancel your subscription.
Maybe then they’d take it seriously.
@MaytagRepairman: So the banner ads come with gaydar?
zero is a number.
If you’re paying for the access to the channel and there is no product/service advertisements, why bother advertising for other shows at all? They have your money already! The only excuse for this, and it’s a poor one, is that they want to inform people of valuable programming so that they continue to pay for the channel.
This is fucked up; more fucked up than NBC’s “X Minutes until Show Y” countdown overlay that they keep in the bottom right at all times during shows.
@karmaghost: Not to defend Showtime, because in-show promos are incredibly annoying and tacky, but in any business, retaining existing customers is as important, if not more so, than recruiting new ones. And they absolutely need viewers to watch their original programming, because that’s where they have to differentiate themselves from HBO and Cinemax.
Obviously, if their viewer retention tactic alienates viewers, then it’s counterproductive, but their very business depends on converting casual viewers (i.e. ones who just watch movies) to regular viewers.
To paraphrase one of the most important philosophers of our time, I’m not saying they should do it, but I understand.
I’ve yet to see HBO do anything like this, which is why I still have HBO. I’ve pretty much stopped watching “commercial” TV due to this behavior by networks/channels. If HBO were ever to start doing this, then I’d have pretty much no reason to subscribe to any cable/satellite TV at all; I’ll just rent and/or buy all of the movies/shows I want to watch.
Something to remember.
YOU are not paying Showtime.
Your cable company is. You pay the cable company to provide it to you over their system.
So why would they care?
Sounds dumb, but its the way these companies think.
@GlennA: Again, not to defend Showtime, but I’m not sure if it’s fair to compare program promos for HBO and Showtime. HBO’s original programming is more established as a brand, and the network has less need to for a hard sell to promote its programs. Showtime’s orginal programming is less mainstream, and the network needs to push it more than HBO does. Again, I’m not saying it’s right, but I understand.
@attackgypsy: That’s silly. Showtime is an a la carte add-on, so cable subscribers can freely add or drop the Showtime channels. That’s like saying Acme Widgets doesn’t care about customers pay Lowes or Home Depot to access the widgets.
@spinachdip: It could work the other way though: viewers develop negative associations with, say, The Tudors due to invasive advertising during a movie.
Also, companies do stuff all the time that’s understandable but not necessarily right. I think the idea is to advocate for the consumer view, not the corporate view.
A number of years ago, I subscribed to Showtime. Then they started with the logo on the screen every 30 minutes for about 2 minutes. They also split the screen during the end credits so that they could show the “Showtime Extras” while the credits were squished below (the top right corner was just a Showtime logo). I complained to them as well as to Directv (I figured they could tell SHO to knock it off since if canceled SHO Directv would lose money). Well, nothing changed, so I canceled Showtime. Next Starz started with the same crap. I made the same complaints. No luck. So I canceled Starz and that’s when I started with Netflix.
And if HBO or Cinemax start doing it, then they go too.
What part of “premium” and “no edits” do these channels not understand? The credits are part of the movie. Directors don’t tell the DP to avoid filming a scene such that important information is in the lower right corner or even the lower portion of the shot. With the logos or even a “crawl” being there the channels have effectively edited the movie and not to its betterment.
On a side note, I recently stopped watching (or even taping) shows on NBC and ABC since besides their logos, they started putting on the extra “New episode of xxx Next!” or “OSCAR countdown – 5 days” next to their logos. Did you see the ABC screen days before the Oscars or days before the Oprah give away?
Sorry for the rant, but this topic just made me sign up just so I can my 2 cents (ok, maybe it’s 4 cents now).
@KenSPT:
It’s a premium channel, that you’re paying extra to get. You expect a higher level of service for the extra money, over what you’d get watching a movie on TNT or whatever the hell other basic cable channel.
I think the last time I paid for HBO I remember they had a “New Viewer Weekend” where it must have been unblocked for everyone. It’s was like watching a pledge drive for PBS between movies.
@woodenturkey: See my comparison btn movie trailers and movie ads. Same thing.
@MaytagRepairman: Yeah, I can barely watch Dexter, Weeds or The Tutors without all that hawt hawt m/m action. Have you even WATCHED TV in the past ten years?
Heh. Tudors. Tudors!
@arcticJKL: Egads, I hate that advertising on the ripoff $50 basic cable stations we have. If I were to waste the money for Showtime and see this type of crap I’d cancel immediately and spend the money on a nice DVD or extra meal out each month. Hey Showtime – people have TV guides and still some level of reading ability remaining. Those stupid ads (even the damn watermarks) distract from the present content and should be banned outright.
No wonder everyone and their horse has A.D.D. nowadays.
Here’s a really good example of banner abuse.
@cde: Yes it’s for another show, and No, it’s not okay.
If I want to know what else is on, I look at my guide, or I wait until AFTER THE MOVIE because that’s all they do between movies is commercials for upcoming shows.
And I have a Tivo, blame me, it’s my fault.
Seeing as how I’ll be able to download new episodes of Californication next season (legally or semi-legally), once I get them in HD, Showtime is off my bill.
There is a direct correlation between the amount of annoying banner ads I see for a show and my lack of desire I have for actually watching said show. I am told that ‘Psych’ and ‘Monk’ are decent shows, but they cropped up seven thousand too many times during reruns of Law and Order on USA for me to watch to watch them.
Also, what is with all banner ads for TV shows featuring the stars of the show looking like smug douchebags?
Urf. If they did this while I was watching a premium channel, I’d be pissed too.
@robocop_is_bleeding: Psych sucks. Monk is funny, though.
I really hate this new tatic by ALL stations of having the stupid little animations or banners or whatever popping up and telling me to watch a (usually) crappy tv show that I would never watch. Ya notice they usually only do this for their low-rating shows? Anyway, I hate it the most when they make sounds, because you wonder what the fuck is going on. It really makes me angry when these things interrupt my shows.
I get showtime because my apartment complex has an all-included rent, so direct tv is part of my rent… I haven’t seen these so far, but I don’t really watch them anyway… The saying is true, over 100 channels and still nothing to watch.
I don’t presently subscribe to Showtime but if I did, you can bet if I started seeing these overlays on the movies I’d paid for, I’d cancel and let them loudly know why I did it. F**k complaining to the cable company, do you think Comcast cares enough to bring your complaint back to Showtime?
@kc2idf: I think action on the “banner abuse” on these basic cable channels would be more effective if it came from the advertisers or even syndicators of the programs themselves and not from the viewers.
Similar issue: our local Fox station at one point started to run split-screen promos for their 10 PM news (with announcer voice-over) on top of the closing credits for Seinfeld. If you’re familiar at all with the show, you know that sometimes the plot continues to play out right through the credits and sometimes even as a voice over on top of the production company end-credit. The news promos were essentially ruining the punch line of many of these shows.
I sent an email to Sony Pictures Television (the syndicator) and let them know what was going on, and within a week the practice had stopped. I can’t say it was my complaint that did it, but if enough people complained to the major advertisers or producers of these program about this banner advertising issue, this might get fixed. The advertisers don’t want to lose you as a viewer and potential customer, and the program producers don’t particularly like it when their customers (TBS, for example) starts messing with the content of the program they sold to them to the point where viewers are complaining. (And don’t get me started on what Turner channels do to the credits of movies either.)
Everyone who said “who cares” is acting like sheep. If you are paying for a service that has never had advertisement before and then suddenly it does, you bet I’m going to cancel showtime.
What do you sheep think the reason everyone was canceling XM Sat radio when Clear Channel started putting advertisements on a pay for network? THIS IS THE REASON!
Sheep
@scoosdad: That’s a good strategy. And then you should cancel anyways. Cause fuck them, that’s why. Media consolidatin’ bastids.
And don’t forget about Tivo! They plaster very annoying ads all over your front page constantly (and other serious infractions). Seriously, Tivo HATES its customers. I have never seen a company that has repeatedly treated its customers like garbage over and over again. They haven’t OFFICIALLY said so, but from what I’ve seen, I think it’s obvious that Tivo will be bankrupt by the end of 2008. Not worth the subscription price at all. What a junk company.
@Geekybiker: OMG, I hate that SO MUCH!
One of the things I like about watching shows online instead of on TV is that the ads don’t come on top of the show. Commercial breaks, fine. Ads covering up the clue they just found? LAME.
My beef with the ads online is that it’s the same ad for the whole show. How hard is it to show a different one?
Noticed that Comcast adverstised for another upcoming movie within an On Demand movie- but the movie I was watching was one of the free ones.
This practice sucks.
I just hate crap like this.
Even with the “free” On Demand stuff, you are still paying for that service. The same with DVDs. Christ on a cracker, you have my money. Don’t make my eyes bleed by adding commercials to it.
Disney, Nick Jr. and dare I say, PBS Sprout are the champs of this. Yes my 32 month old sons loves your shows. But your shows (even PBS) are just commercials for your toy products. So, I have to 5 minutes of commercials before my feature length commercial begins… Ugh!
The worst offenders of this is Fear.Net. Good God…! Ok, I’m used to the retarded game commercials for the first minute, but then they break right in the middle of the movie to do more advertisements? And that stupid knife slashing the bottom third of the screen?!
Somebody save us!
@Trai_Dep: I left Showtime only 4 years ago. At the time the L Word and Queer As Folk were being advertised hard by Showtime because they didn’t have anything else to advertise except Huff which apparently flopped (those shows you mentioned didn’t exist yet) and it was the only thing that distinguished them from other premium channels.
@Atomike: What do you expect for a company whose business plan is based on selling consumers hardware so that after building up a large enough customer base, they can then collect viewing data from those customers and sell it to broadcasters and advertisers, and also push ads back onto the hardware?
I’d bet they make more money off selling that data than they do selling the hardware and subscriptions. Is their annual report published somewhere?
Back to the original topic, wouldn’t it have been great if the new digital TV broadcast standard included a way for stations to carry that banner advertising in a separate layer from the program, and let you opt-out of it somehow? I’d pay a little extra on my cable bill for a clean feed of every channel so that it didn’t show the graphics. Plasma owners would buy into that just to remove the fear factor about burn-in of the logos. Ditto for a way of losing the announcer’s audio on some sports events (tho’ I have a way to do that already).