http://variety.com/2018/tv/news/nbcuniversal-nbc-advertising-cut-primetime-ad-load-1202712956/

“TV networks would be crazy to believe that anything other than commercial overhaul was anything other than inevitable," says NBC Universal's Linda Yaccarino, pointing to the many ways people skip commercials nowadays.

It's a step in the right direction, excessive advertising is one of the reasons people have "cut the cord". In my case it's too little, too late. In the 11 years since I cancelled my subscription I've amassed a library of DVDs that's so huge it may outlast me!

I almost never watch NBC or for that matter CBS or ABC anymore.However I am surprised they are doing it voluntarily.Still though cutting the amount by only twenty percent is way too little considering the obscene amount of commercials they show.However as small as their little gesture is it's still a positive one and may start a trend with some other channels.

Big news !!!

Baby steps

TV shows are made to fit the amount of commercial time. Unless all the other networks go along, what is NBC going to do with the extra time?

My bet: promos. They'll say that's not a commercial. If they were to be totally honest, IMO this is what they would have said: We can't sell all the time, so we're cutting down on commercials.

One other thing: ads on cable and digital channels are such gutter slime, I'd like to see them cut the ad time, too.

Awesome. This Is Us fans like me are always complaining about how bad the commercials are during that show. It's like 5 mins of show then a boatload of commercials.

that cut down on the ads on snl this year and i must say i like the idea

The title is also misleading.According to what I read they are only cutting the amount of commercial "time" by ten percent.And that's only on their so called prime time line up.Even if the time allowed for advertising were cut in half it would still be way more advertising than channels had thirty plus years ago.

And I definitely agree with the comment of how bottom of the barrel TV commercials have become.And also other forms of advertising.I don't watch commercials anymore and it has come to the point where now I can't even stand listening to them so I avoid them altogether.

How can you miss them? There are times that there are so many commercials that actually forget what I was watching.

Doesn't matter how many commercials they cut when the programming is still crap.

Exactly.Whether it's their programming,advertising and so on, channels like NBC,CBS and ABC have degenerated into such crap.If they went off the air I would not even notice or care.The same of course can be said for the majority of the other so called channels.

The three biggest reasons people are cutting the cord are...

1. High Subscription Costs

2. Lame Programming

3. Commercials

I wish TV would go back to the 1950's-1960's standards...have a show be sponsored by McDonald's or Geico.

I wish TV would go back to the 1950's-1960's standards...have a show be sponsored by McDonald's or Geico.

NOT GEICO! They are the Generally Excruciating Irritating Commercial Organization! :mad:

NOT GEICO! They are the Generally Excruciating Irritating Commercial Organization! :mad:

Sorry...but you know what I'm sayin'...

Since a show like American Idol uses Coke, the show should be called The Coca-Cola American Idol Hour or since The Simpsons used Butterfinger, that show can be sponsored by Butterfinger or Nestle Products!

More Show, Less Commercial, but the show sponsors a commercial, everyone wins!

NOT GEICO! They are the Generally Excruciating Irritating Commercial Organization! :mad:There are a lot of annoying commercials, some of them from insurance companies. Geico has creative ads though for the most part. I also like the Farmers ads with JK Simmons and the Aflac duck. The worst insurance ads are from Progressive.

Believe it or not you can pretty much watch any primetime TV Show from the 1950's thru the mid-1990's and you will find the amount of commercial time to be about the same. A 30 min show had 5 to 6 minutes of ads. 1 hour show had 10 to 12 minutes of ads. What happened?

Nowadays a show has around 18 mins of ads per hour, so it looks like the average show on NBC will have around 16 mins after the 10% reduction.

There are a lot of annoying commercials, some of them from insurance companies. Geico has creative ads though for the most part. I also like the Farmers ads with JK Simmons and the Aflac duck. The worst insurance ads are from Progressive.

I hate the Liberty Mutual ones.

And I know I've said this before, but I hate those commercials wanting $19 a month for an assortment of things. I say they use the money to buy more and more ads.

Believe it or not you can pretty much watch any primetime TV Show from the 1950's thru the mid-1990's and you will find the amount of commercial time to be about the same. A 30 min show had 5 to 6 minutes of ads. 1 hour show had 10 to 12 minutes of ads. What happened?

Nowadays a show has around 18 mins of ads per hour, so it looks like the average show on NBC will have around 16 mins after the 10% reduction.

I know MeTV has 7 minutes of ad time per half hour, which includes their 10 second station ID. This is if they are provided an unedited length program (that they then edit, and IMO time-adjust a little). If they are provided a syndication length program, their ad time increases a little.

Also IMO, Antenna TV does not edit any program length. I think their program length depends on what is provided to them.

The Viacom networks used to be among the worst for ad time, and probably still are. I think they were around 10-12 minutes of ads per half hour, which gets the viewer a severely edited and/or time-adjusted program.

There are a lot of annoying commercials, some of them from insurance companies. Geico has creative ads though for the most part. I also like the Farmers ads with JK Simmons and the Aflac duck. The worst insurance ads are from Progressive.
I rank all the insurance ads I could think of in this order:

1. Geico
2. The General
3. Aflac
4. State Farm (Uhhhh, khakis)
5. Farmers
6. Progressive
7. Liberty Mutual
8. Good2Go

Good2Go should be renamed "Bottom of the Barrel".

Good2Go should be renamed "Bottom of the Barrel".
Not quite the bottom....Flo from Progressive has that position.

Not quite the bottom....Flo from Progressive has that position.

I don't know if these kinds of commercials are polluting the airwaves where you live, but the political commercials will make TV programs unwatchable if they aren't already. :angryfire

TV shows are made to fit the amount of commercial time. Unless all the other networks go along, what is NBC going to do with the extra time?

My bet: promos. They'll say that's not a commercial. If they were to be totally honest, IMO this is what they would have said: We can't sell all the time, so we're cutting down on commercials.

One other thing: ads on cable and digital channels are such gutter slime, I'd like to see them cut the ad time, too.

Hopefully shows can expand 1-2 minutes. After all, SNL added back about five minutes just a couple of years ago.

They will make up for the lost commercial time by adding scenes like this

oQYwFND7rHE

Step in the right direction, but they need to wake up and STOP keeping their damn LOGO always onscreen! Most people don't even notice it, but it annoys the hell out of me (even more than commercials) and has caused me to stop watching ever since it started. What have they GAINED by doing this for 20+ years???

^That's one good thing about Antenna TV. It must be optional, because we don't get their logo here (I've only seen it occasionally).

I don't know if these kinds of commercials are polluting the airwaves where you live, but the political commercials will make TV programs unwatchable if they aren't already. :angryfire

And I had more than enough of them in this last election, but still they kept coming!

Step in the right direction, but they need to wake up and STOP keeping their damn LOGO always onscreen! Most people don't even notice it, but it annoys the hell out of me (even more than commercials) and has caused me to stop watching ever since it started. What have they GAINED by doing this for 20+ years???
I heard that the reason is due to pirating.

Maybe they also use logos because most channels these days are so forgettable.

It's a start. I'd like to see them get rid of all the pop-ups they do as well. NBC's are probably the most obnoxious, since they take up the entire bottom.

Scrapping the generic credits would be a nice move too, but I know I'm asking a lot.

As for content, 16 minutes of commercials would probably be closer to what we had in the late-90s, but I'd like to see it get closer to 15 minutes.