OUR youths do not watch TV anymore. They spend their time on mobile phones for information, sports and entertainment. One reason for this is extended commercial breaks during the telecast of any infotainment or sports programme.

The recent telecast of the first Test match between Pakistan and England on TV was marred by a volley of advertisements when the sports-starved Pakistani viewers didn’t want to miss a single ball. Sports lovers now love to watch post-last-ball scenes, which they easily watch on the Internet.

With the launch of private TV channels, the youths were glued to these channels for entertainment. As time elapsed, long commercial breaks became a nuisance because it stalled the flow of entertainment. A movie of two hours would take more than three hours to end. A drama episode of 35 minutes was dragged to one hour.

Then came the CD channels run privately by cable owners. Everyone started watching movies and stage dramas on these channels. But this joy too was short lived because of inbuilt commercial breaks. To amass money, local cable operators started punctuating the programmes with local ads, which were too frequent and of low quality.

Our lost young generation was attracted by Internet-based entertainment first on personal computers and then on mobile phones. Mobile phones provided privacy and unsupervised opportunities for enjoying the entertainment. In aloofness, the young minds are now tempted by surfeit of risqué entertainment. Family entertainment has become extinct.

Parents are unaware of the programmes their children watch on their mobile phones. The menace of TikTok would never have made faces at us had we reined in this commercialisation of infotainment.

How can we blame children when we knowingly and ruthlessly have marooned them to lonely islands of shoddy entertainment as the boys in William Golding’s 1954 novel Lord of the Flies?

With the Indian content barred in Pakistan while it is readily available on Internet, these nauseating commercial breaks are ominous for TV.

The need is to harness these commercial breaks. TV channels must follow the media and marketing ethics and the bylaws concerning the allotted time during the telecast of any infotainment programme.

The quality of commercial ads must be improved. Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority should enjoin upon national channels to proportionate air time for commercial breaks. A notice to run ads-free CD or cable channels must be issued by local administration to cable owners who collect monthly subscription without fail. Otherwise, TV will be history, at least for the teenagers.

Muhammad Nadeem Nadir

Kasur

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2020