Alternate Reality To Keep Fans Entertained... >>
<< Wal-Mart Signals The End Of The VCR: Will Stop...
 tdicon 

Miscellaneous

by Mike Masnick

Tue, Jun 14th 2005 1:27am





Watch This Commercial Or You Might Miss A Spectacular Car Crash!

from the how-to-keep-attention-on-the-TV dept

It's no surprise that TV producers are coming up with more creative methods to get people to not fast forward through commercials in an age of TiVo. We've written about replacing recorded commercials with more relevant commercials, pop up ad gimmicks and even contests that get you to watch commercials. That's over the course of nearly five years. So is it really any surprise that the folks producing Indy Car Races are using split-screen commercials during races? The idea is pretty straight forward, and actually makes sense for long car races. Car races don't stop for commercials, so each commercial break is a chance to miss the action -- so this year the commercials are run as a split-screen, picture-in-picture style. The race is still going on off to the side with the data displayed in text format. Meanwhile, the standard commercial is happening on the other side. It's likely some fans like it too, as it means they don't miss any of the action. Still, it's not clear such a solution works in many other situations, since other shows/sporting events wouldn't have much to show during such commercials breaks.

4 Comments | Leave a Comment

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1.  
    identicon
    dorpus, Jun 14th, 2005 @ 1:31am

    Is CNN still doing the sliding headlines?

    When I stopped owning a TV, CNN had switched to an annoying partitioned-screen format with a lot of moving letters at the bottom. Are they still doing that?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    eponymous geek, Jun 14th, 2005 @ 8:44am

    Re: Is CNN still doing the sliding headlines?

    Si, senor.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    Paul Devisser, Jun 14th, 2005 @ 10:54am

    Commercials `In-line`

    I've been a regular fan of the World Cup of Soccer for many years. The last couple of events (1996,2000,2004) that were broadcast on TSN (The Sports Network) in Canada have featured inline commercials. They used a slightly different format, with a couple of boxes, with the game continueing in the smaller box. I found that it didn't diminish my enjoyment of the game at all.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  
    identicon
    secret squirrel, Jun 15th, 2005 @ 12:03pm

    sckred on the screen

    Most of the subchannels, such as A&E, History Channel, TLC, etc are all messing up the bottom of the screens so badly as to make many of their own programs unwatchable.

    for instance I can't stand the idiot "Dog" but have to endure ceaseless plugs at the bottom of the screen for him. what a bunch of crap.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Save me a cookie
  • Note: A CRLF will be replaced by a break tag (<br>), all other allowable HTML will remain intact
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
Alternate Reality To Keep Fans Entertained... >>
<< Wal-Mart Signals The End Of The VCR: Will Stop...
 tdicon 
Follow Techdirt
Flattr rss rss
A word from our Sponsors...
Sponsored Resource
Essential Reading
Techdirt Reading List
Techdirt Insider Chat

A word from our Sponsors...
Recent Stories

Wednesday

1:56am: Warning Letters Under UK's Three Strikes Plan Unlikely To Be Sent Out Before 2016 -- If Ever (1)

Tuesday

11:01pm: Public Outcry In Taiwan Kills Their Version Of SOPA (4)
8:02pm: WIPO: Informal Economy Innovates In The Absence Of Intellectual Monopolies (9)
5:00pm: DailyDirt: Augmented Vision (3)
3:50pm: States Attorneys General Want Special Exception To Blame Sites For Actions Of Users (52)
3:02pm: Google, Without Admitting It Gets FISA Orders, Files Lawsuit To Challenge FISA Gag Orders (23)
2:29pm: NYPD Commissioner Blasts NSA Secret Monitoring For Being Secret (22)
1:43pm: It's Come To This: Commentators Arguing That The Press Commits A Crime In Exposing NSA Surveillance (49)
1:00pm: US Chamber Of Commerce: Bollywood Is So Successful Without Strong Copyrights That It Will Fail Unless India Strengthens Its Copyrights (46)
11:58am: Senator Lindsey Graham Defends NSA Surveillance By Arguing About Something Entirely Different (52)
More arrow
A word from our Sponsors...

Close

Email This