|
|
|
Give us a break
‘See you after the break. Stay tuned!’ Television presenters say this before they toss viewers into a flood of advertisements pushing products down their throat. A viewer who just wants to enjoy a few engaging moments grumbles, ‘A shopping guide is the last thing I deserve,’ before switching over to a channel that shows comparatively lesser commercials, and even fewer clothes.
Indeed, commercials help some to choose the toothpaste that cares more for money than teeth, and let others pick the finest undergarments too. The publicity clips earn bread and butter for channel workers and bring considerable earnings for the owners. But how many commercials should we swallow after each single scene of a programme? Don’t we need to have a sense of proportion and balance?
The pertinent question is: how can a channel attract viewers if it starts out a 10-minute commercial distraction after every five minutes of a show?
The remote control cannot fast forward a transmission, though it can assist viewers to disregard the appeal to stay tuned, even if they have to miss the remaining piece of a show. Some switch back and forth frequently, waiting for the barrage to end. In any case, channels possess reduced number of addressees at the time of a break, which contradicts the value of advertising on television. Also, if a channel gets branded for having more interruptions than programmes, it loses its audience in a steady stream. So, the more the commercials, the fewer the viewers!
The marketing bosses of four major channels, when contacted by this writer, did not dispute the standpoint that they do not maintain a reasonable balance, and that the closing calculation will show lesser viewers. Yet the war for more commercials, e.g. more money, goes on.
Tariq Saleemullah of ARY said, “We don’t yet have a meter fixed on the cable machines to monitor the exact number of viewers watching a certain channel at a certain time. We use our homemade technique to estimate our viewership. Mostly, it is guesswork. We have three breaks in a 50-minute programme, and two in a 25-minute slot. We don’t follow any standard about the break’s duration. We show as many commercials as we are able to receive.”
“When we opened shop, we had promised our advertisers that we would be creating a viewer-friendly atmosphere, so that more viewers could watch their publicity. These days, usually we have 16-17 minutes of commercials in four-to-five breaks in an hour. I agree that if we add more, we’ll lose our share of viewers and in turn the commercials will lose effectiveness. I also agree that breaks should come at a reasonable frequency, and not after every five minutes,” commented Sarmad Ali of Geo.
Fuad Mehdi of Indus sang a similar tune. “Our policy is to show commercials for 10-to-12 minutes every hour of transmission, in three breaks. We know that more breaks will result in the loss of viewers. Actual primetime is very limited — from 8pm to 9pm. People usually watch television from seven in the evening to one in the morning. So we consider these six hours as primetime. If we get more commercials than needed, we spread them to other slots where we have less ads.”
“A total of 10 minutes of commercials in one hour is the standard all over the world. We try to follow it. But we can’t turn down our clients who insist on showing their spots during our primetime, from 8pm to 9pm, since the price for that slot is the highest. I agree that a commercial break should not be longer than four-to-five minutes so that viewers don’t switch off,” said Sadaqat Malik of PTV.
What they say and what they execute is any viewer’s knowledge!
|
|
|
|
