but people gotta stop acting like this is something serious lol
But it is. Compare the one 30 second "sponsored by" ad the big 3 networks used to run at each end of a program at the beginning of broadcast television to what we have now where the very narrative structure of a program centers around where they can shoehorn 20 odd minutes of advertising into every hour of programming for boner pills and cars.
Look at how the original incentive for going to the streaming services was "a third of our programming isn't advertising". Now look at the warming of the pot here where I'm actually paying them to serve me advertising. it's stupid, greedy, and something I want no part of or I'd still be paying for 1000 cable channels I don't want. The buck stops here for me with Netflix the same way it did with Hulu. Simple as that.
The old sponsor message usually ran for about a minute at the beginning and then there was usually a second sponsor message during the program (so it was a bit worse than described, but not terrible... other than it usually being the same two messages). However, keep mind that that was how it started and things *eventually* got to the point they are today. People in arms about this today are likely seeing it as the first step towards the exact reason they cut their cable.
TBH, I didn't know that many people cut their cable because of commercials. This is the first time I'm hearing about it. Usually, I hear they cut it because they Netflix/Hulu was cheaper(or that cable in general was too expensive), or they can watch the few shows they watch there, or they don't spend enough time at home to watch it, and stuff like that. But I've never heard the commercial reason anywhere but here. Tonight is probably the first time I'm hearing it...
At least Zues gets what I'm saying here. I despise ads, and advertising has gotten out of control in media overall. A 1 hour football game shouldn't take 4 hours to watch because advertising itself interferes with the pacing of the game ffs. A 1 hour drama shouldn't have it's entire narrative structure designed around commercials. The news can't even go after big pharma on the opioid epidemic for fear of upsetting their corporate Masters and I'm sick of having the filthy lucre of ad revenue penetrating every aspect of my media consumption. Doubly so for media I've already paid to consume. Previews in movies have pissed me off since the VHS days. I get that a *free* service like YouTube has to monetize somehow to stay afloat, but I'm already paying Netflix ffs.
Netflix has decided that me paying them and them hitting me with daily notifications and emails wasn't enough, and the ads in their content crosses a line too far for me. ---