Channel 7 commercials

[Bradley]

I know this has been beaten to death but really does anyone know why channel 7 can get coverage awards with 5 lap/10 minutes of showing racing and then 4-5 minutes of commericals from the start to end of Bathurst (let alone the rest of the years stuff)?

you can use the it's not pay tv thing but One does NASCAR with not that many commercials? couldn't they just charge more for the space and do less commericals, they'd still make the same money? I would have thought that if you have less commercials then it'd pay off better being that people don't completely switch off because of the 10 they show every 5 minutes?

although after watching Bathurst I now know what the fashion will be at the races this year, which I'm sure was targeted at much of the Bathurst watching viewers.....

[Langers]

TiVo.

[Axeman444]

Originally Posted by Bradley

you can use the it's not pay tv thing but One does NASCAR with not that many commercials? couldn't they just charge more for the space and do less commericals, they'd still make the same money? I would have thought that if you have less commercials then it'd pay off better being that people don't completely switch off because of the 10 they show every 5 minutes?

i guess that depends on whether Coates Hire and WesTrac were the predominant advertisers...

[St00ge]

need to get access to the stats like they do for Nascar to do some comparisons unless someone else wants to put in the effort to log it all..

http://www.jayski.com/pages/commercials2011.htm
http://www.CawsnJaws.com

Race and Commercial Breakdown of the Kansas race: For those of you NASCAR fans that like stats and love to hate commercials, or wonder how often your driver was focused on, here is the breakdown for Sunday’s race. Began recording the times at the Invocation of the race at 2:02 PM, and stopped at the waving of the checkered flag at 5:18 PM (all times are EST). Did not keep records for the pre- and post-race coverage. ESPN was the broadcast team for this event.. Included in this broadcast was ‘NASCAR Non-Stop’, commercials shown split-screen with the race broadcast.
Start time to record race/commercial periods: 2:02 PM
End time to record race/commercial periods: 5:18 PM
Total minutes of complete broadcast: 196
Total minutes of race broadcast: 166
Total number of traditional commercials (not split-screen): 69
Minutes of traditional commercials: 30
Total number of ‘NASCAR Non-Stop commercials’ (split-screen): 40
Number of times ESPN utilized ‘NASCAR Non-Stop’ to show split-screen commercials: 8
Minutes of ‘NASCAR Non-Stop Commercials’: 19
Total number of commercials: 109
Total number of companies or entities advertised: 57
Total number of brief promos of products/services during the race broadcast: 31
Number of missed restarts: 0
Number of ‘mystery cautions’ (debris not shown): 1
For links to sponsors, or special items-of-interest such as links to contests and movie sites, selected drivers and more, see CawsnJaws.com.(10-10-2011)

[Rick]

Originally Posted by Langers

TiVo.

Unfortunately that doesn't work when using live timing and twitter.
That's the first time I've got the timing to even half work and it really was good to see who was doing what - particularly the co-drivers.

[DV_08]

I think you will find that the average amount of time between adverts hasn't changed in over 20 years. I think someone over at v8 central did a comparison between 90,00 and 10 Bathursts and it was pretty much the same.

[chavez]

Originally Posted by DV_08

I think you will find that the average amount of time between adverts hasn't changed in over 20 years. I think someone over at v8 central did a comparison between 90,00 and 10 Bathursts and it was pretty much the same.

Agree Dv_08.

What may have changed is that the adverts were more consisent in frequency, now we might see 20 minutes of racing then adverts followed by 6 minutes of racing then more adverts.

[wishbone]

i live out of Sydney metro, and only get prime and 7mate on prime, We got normal add and full-on infomercials during the coverage.

[Bugger All]

I noted that at least last year and the year before the bigpond on line feed had no adds so if you had your laptop handy your could watch that (albeit 30 seconds delayed) while the add breaks were on and could watch the track video with no audio feed. This year was a re transmission of Sydney 7 mate (said a few words you cant say in front of the kids when I found that out) so they are getting every possible revenue stream in!!

[Bevan-L]

Here is something to think about, WTF cant they do the commercials like the supercheap one where its just a screen off to the right but the race is still being shown on the left???? why can't they do it that way??

[Bradley]

or the fake norton and bigpond signs in the cutting? they just look cheap...

[Buckshot]

Originally Posted by Bradley

or the fake norton and bigpond signs in the cutting? they just look cheap...

Were they fake or were they just a weird colour that stood out ? I did double take on them when I first saw them.

I haven't watched a V8 Supercar race "live" for almost 5 years now. Get yourself some sort of PVR like a Topfield or I'm currently using windows media centre running through an xBox360. Set up to record the races and then don't start watching until the race is about 1/2 an hour or so in. Skip through the adds while the race is running and hopefully you won't catch up to the telecast before the end of the race. Even if you know what time the race starts using timeshifting pause the race, take the dog for a walk, make some popcorn and then sit down to an ad free race.

We even did it for Bathurst last year, we had a BBQ and a late night the night before hand and then didn't start watching the races until about 11:30. We had enough buffer so we didn't have to watch a single ad all day.

Life's too short to spend it watching commercials especially nowadays when they're so easy to avoid.

[Juarez Jed]

They were fake alright. I think they used to have computer generated billboards and on-track signage during the Supertourer telecasts a decade ago.

[Buckshot]

Originally Posted by Juarez Jed

They were fake alright. I think they used to have computer generated billboards and on-track signage during the Supertourer telecasts a decade ago.

I remember that well, that was when Channel 7 raped the mountain. There were dodgy signs dubbed in all over the place, even in the middle of the road.

[Bradley]

but i'm sure they'll get a aeward for bathurst coverage somehow

[inpitlane]

Originally Posted by Bevan-L

Here is something to think about, WTF cant they do the commercials like the supercheap one where its just a screen off to the right but the race is still being shown on the left???? why can't they do it that way??

Because as a client i don't want the focus of my message split or diminished in any way. Supercheap are also sponsoring the race and I'd be willing to bet that there'd be plenty of Russell Ingall shots during those breaks.
If I've paid $10'000 for my 30 second TVC then damn it I want it to get 100% attention.
Remember the reason for a Commercial Television Network to exist is purely to sell Television Commercials, it is not to provide entertainment for you.
If TV stations could get you to watch without providing any entertainment at all yet still attract viewers they would.
We call this the Channel Nine principle.

[porsche91722]

Originally Posted by inpitlane

.........Remember the reason for a Commercial Television Network to exist is purely to sell Television Commercials, it is not to provide entertainment for you.
If TV stations could get you to watch without providing any entertainment at all yet still attract viewers they would......

They all seem to be adopting that practice now and using it vigorously. Perhaps, that may be why we spend so much time on discussion forums.

[F J Nedos]

Originally Posted by Bevan-L

Here is something to think about, WTF cant they do the commercials like the supercheap one where its just a screen off to the right but the race is still being shown on the left???? why can't they do it that way??

In Canada for the F1 telecast, thats how they do it. They put the race in the top left corner, put the ad in the bottom right corner (the larger of the two screens, and run its audio).

I could stomach that. But the absolute embarrasment of ads this year was nothing short of disgraceful. I understand the reality of a commerical operation, but that was just ridiculous. Over the top.

We watched the F1 coverage after the race, and wondered where the ads were. Sure they had them, but in comparison it felt like none.

There needs to be some alternative. Not everyone can make it to the track to watch it live.

[Bevan-L]

Originally Posted by F J Nedos

In Canada for the F1 telecast, thats how they do it. They put the race in the top left corner, put the ad in the bottom right corner (the larger of the two screens, and run its audio).

I could stomach that. But the absolute embarrasment of ads this year was nothing short of disgraceful. I understand the reality of a commerical operation, but that was just ridiculous. Over the top.

We watched the F1 coverage after the race, and wondered where the ads were. Sure they had them, but in comparison it felt like none.

There needs to be some alternative. Not everyone can make it to the track to watch it live.

Exactly!! I watch the Indycars on ESPN and even they do this.... I care not that the audio is replaced with that of the Commercial, but I still wanna see what is going on.... I actually gave up watching the race in the end because i got tired of the ads.... i just downloaded the whole race the next day and watched it then... ad free... pretty much like all the races this year...

[Marcos WTF]

Originally Posted by Buckshot

I remember that well, that was when Channel 7 raped the mountain. There were dodgy signs dubbed in all over the place, even in the middle of the road.

7 should have drawn in a vitual crowd too. There were more wheelie bins than paying punters on the fence. I also rememember 7 wanted to do the
virtual add thing at the MCG for a gayfl final.

They got pulled into line PDQ.

[chavez]

Originally Posted by F J Nedos

In Canada for the F1 telecast, thats how they do it. They put the race in the top left corner, put the ad in the bottom right corner (the larger of the two screens, and run its audio).

I could stomach that. But the absolute embarrasment of ads this year was nothing short of disgraceful. I understand the reality of a commerical operation, but that was just ridiculous. Over the top.

We watched the F1 coverage after the race, and wondered where the ads were. Sure they had them, but in comparison it felt like none.

There needs to be some alternative. Not everyone can make it to the track to watch it live.

To say that there are more adverts this year than last or any other year in recent memory is simply not true.

The ACMA code of practice allows for 16 minutes of adverts per hour. We may not like it but it has been this way for a number of years.

[formerf1champ]

If chavez and DV_08 are right about ther being the same amount of time for ads as there was 20 years ago, it's just they're smaller but more frequent, then I suggest going back to how it was. No way, did it feel like as much of an interruption as it did then. When you think how much "effort" is being put into gaining attention from people with a minimal interest, I can't think of anything that is more likely to extuinguish interest from anybody who doesn't care that much already than the high frequency of commercials.