[anand_hc]

I don't think we are at a situation where major part of subscription money reaches actual content producer.

One of the reasons subscriber was asked to provide their identity some time back in metros was due cable mafia minting money. These guys had way too many connections but paid the content producers mere fraction of it by stating lower subscription.

If pay from every of subscriber reaches actual channel producer after cable guy get's his cut - it should result in lot more money flowing in & reduction in ads.

Other part is also - greed of some of these folks who want to kill golden goose like BCCI or channels which air movies of stars. They show glimpses of matches during an ad show.

I caught up some cricket on SKY sports in London during my recent trips and it was different experience altogether.

Like everything else, this will change too but will take time. I am still optimistic hopefully sooner..

[Guite]

Originally Posted by hellmet

I use the same reasoning for people wearing shirts that prominently display brand names. I ask them - "Hope the brand gave you the shirt for free?"

Quite my sentiment, US Polo Assn comes to mind.

OT but related: Cover story and front page news are gone, instead we now have full page advertisements staring at us on the newsstand.

There are so many Daikin and Hindustan Times residential colonies they should suffix numbers to differentiate them.

[Soumyajit9]

Originally Posted by hellmet

TV switches off your brain - that's not relaxation

Well, at the end of a tiring day, my brain needs some rest. Good that TV gets it switched off or puts it into trance mode while watching ads.

[farhadtarapore]

Someone should create a device which simply switches off the TV when Ads are detected and switches it back on when content resumes. Would save so much on electricity bills also.

And ditto for Radio.

[amansanc]

I disconnected my Tata Sky connection last month. No one was using it. Felt it was a waste of money and didn't feel like paying so much to watch ads. Good riddance! Most of the things that i watch are available online. Fulfills my need.

P.S. Still have Tata Sky + at my house in Jaipur. Parents need it. And the recording feature helps a lot! They follow the same procedure that GTO mentioned. And mom gets to see the shows she missed due to some other work


Cheers!
amansanc

[vijaymishra]

Originally Posted by hellmet

Typical click-n-bait.

What NAS storage do you use?

I use MY Book Live from Western Digital, a 2 TB drive costs under 10 K. The best part is you can run torrent application within and don't need a separate PC plus through an app it has the ability to back all your media from the phone anywhere from the Internet.

[prancinstallion]

Indian consumer story is different from the rest of the world considering the sheer number of eye balls that content producers and channels target. When it comes to cricket live programming, you might know that the ad spots are sold in seconds and there's a layer between the ad agencies and channels, who sell the inventory. The guy at the console has a lot of inventory to clear and accountable for every second. Thanks to him, for the action that we miss during live cricket. Its annoying to say the least however HD ad free channels may be what you are better off watching.

A small anecdote that I would like to share here. I keenly follow CNBC TV18, ET NOW and Bloomberg. CNBC TV18 and ET NOW together account for majority of English Business news viewership and attract ad inventory while Bloomberg fills its breaks with their own programming content and very few ads. This is not to say that their content is inferior, its just that they cater to a different audience. I find recording feature very useful as it allows me to remote record and watch it at leisure skipping the ads.


On a different note, you may find this astonishing but in UK, on top of the DTH subscription, there's TV license fee which amounts to 140 pounds per annum. Considering this, our DTH subscription charges are somewhat reasonable but looking at the big picture(no pun intended), our TV programming is yet to evolve.

[ifightforuser31]

Originally Posted by naveenroy

Same boat. I hate the advertisements too. So I did this - removed all the movie channels from my Tata Sky HD+ connection, invested in Netflix. I share the connection with my friends so it ends up like 150 bucks a month. Good price.

The only reason I still have the Tata Sky HD+ connection is that I need my fix of sports. I watch Football, F1, MotoGP, the Tennis GPs. I am still to check if I can get a package with only sports channels. If I can do that, I will move to that.

I am tired of the advertisements every 5 minutes. Guess there was some recommendation from the broadcasting authority that ads shouldn't be played too often or something like that. But I see no difference.

How do I watch netflix from india?

[shankar.balan]

Ref ads. I have no idea who selects the obnoxious little nasty brats featured in these ads. I am completely unable to understand how people can think they are cute. Some of those kids are absolutely horrid.
And then there are these other ads showing a regular young ish couple, living in some Palatial home ( so terribly distanced from reality).
Ads in India are escapist.

I absolutely abhor that they interfere with whatever little TV programming content that I actually like.
Nowadays, I m beginning to think that I will not renew my stupid Tata Sky connection at all.

[nitinbose]

In my understanding, we pay the DTH bill to the provider and the provider in turn compensates the respective channels! So its quite outrageous for the channels to still include the huge number of ads, especially for the Indian channels.

I do recall watching DTH in Singapore, where the number of ads depend on the subscription levels. The higher/premier subscriptions have very less/limited ads.

I feel we're being taken for rides.

[naveenroy]

Originally Posted by ifightforuser31

How do I watch netflix from india?

I use a DNS Proxy - usually paid versions work better than free ones. Use the DNS settings provided by the DNS service - either on your router or a specific device and then you will be able to access Netflix and other sites. Pay for a Netflix account - you can even share it with friends.

[manij]

I am also taking a contra view to most sentiments on this thread:

1) If I was living alone, maybe would have considered option of no such TV. But no such escape possible in my family

2) I would love to not have noise at home in the evenings after returning back from work, but... my mother has her regional soaps to watch, and kids have some of theirs. I understand even at my daughters school, they discuss what happened in 'TeenNick' for example in 'Sam And Cat'.

3) On the rare occasions when I also have to sit along and watch, I frankly enjoy the ads more than the content. For example, the 'Sam And Cat' show has been stopped after some seasons in the US and each episode has already been shown atleast a 'double digit' number of times. Still my daughter sits and watches each....As regards all the bickering and quarrel and noise in each of the regional soaps, frankly I would love to watch the ads. I am in fact thankful for the ads that give some respite from all the 'evil' that is being reinvented and reshown in the soaps.

4) What I dont like though is that the ads get repeated ever so often, have noticed it often happening in some of the HD channels as well as the house channels (like the home channel of TataSky) where same ads keep getting played over and over again...that does get painful.

[Geo_Ipe]

Originally Posted by hellmet

Given that 25-40% of showtime is filled with advertisements, and the remaining showtime is filled with subtle (and not so subtle) advertisements, product placements and references - why in the world do we PAY to watch TV ?

As far as my understanding goes, we are paying the DTH/Cable guy for the service he is offering - which is bringing us TV channels. Is DTH/Cable guy responsible for what is being shown on the channels that are being provided?? So can't quite agree with the argument here!

And DTH/Cable TV is a fully optional entity. Whoever finds it unreasonable just needs to keep away from it!

I got myself a TV with Tata Sky a month back, mainly for my parents' sake, who are visiting me much more often these days. So they need their share of regional soaps and news channels. When they aren't around, I use it to relax once I'm back from from work. Whenever ads pop up, I check my WhatsApp or Team BHP! Or if the ad is interesting/funny, I watch it!! At the end of the day, it is personal choice. Whoever can live with the ads, live on. Others march on away...

[supertinu]

From Devils advocate perspective, there is a big infrastructure which DTV guys are setting up and they need to charge for service. From all the production house standpoint making the serials/movies they need to pay everyone and still make money. From sports standpoint the channel pays tons of money to get rights to telecast a particular event, so they are doing it for money and not from the goodness of there heart to show us the chats the cricketers are having while another is getting his cramp massaged . Bottom line its a capitalistic world and same applies on media.

Now from consumer perspective, other than limited sports like F1, WC soccer that i watched live, everything else is either recorded or time shifted or downloaded or streaming. Just forward the ads on your STB with a harddisk or get one if you dont have. We still pay a fraction for cable and HD channel services compared to west where its a bomb and a monopolized by cable companies.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by hellmet

I use the same reasoning for people wearing shirts that prominently display brand names. I ask them - "Hope the brand gave you the shirt for free?"

OT for this thread, but very relevant topic. I buy a sweatshirt from any brand and I advertise it after paying 2-3K (to buy it) for it and continue doing so every time I wear it. Or any other garment, shoes etc.

Why?

Originally Posted by Guite

Quite my sentiment, US Polo Assn comes to mind.