Re: TV commercial timing?

On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:08:01 GMT, ebenZEROONE@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Hactar)
wrote:

>In article <bc8p04pmc3hjphcc7kp9ovp39dg32rv468@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>Neal Eckhardt  <neckhardt@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> On Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:09:56 -0500, msb@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Mark Brader) wrote:
>> 
>> >"Andy":
>> >> Do all channels go to commercials at the same time? Seems so on my
cable TV.
>> >
>> >I think it's mostly that a certain length of show naturally falls into
a
>> >certain number of acts.  For 30-minute sitcoms you usually have a
short
>> >teaser (i.e. prolog), two acts, and maybe a short epilog; for 1-hour
>> >dramas it's four acts (remember those old Quinn Martin producitons
that
>> >numbered them in Roman numerals?) instead of two.  There's variation
in
>> >the lengths of individual acts, and sometimes the prolog and/or epilog
>> >are skipped, but the typical result is going to be that if two
channels
>> >are showing the same sort of show, they're likely to have a lot of
>> >simultaneous commercial breaks.
>> >
>> >And even if not, the amount of commercial time these days is large
enough
>> >that random chance would produce commercials at the same time on
different
>> >channels.
>> >
>> >Of course this is about North American TV, with almost all shows
starting on
>> >the hour or half-hour.  Elsewhere may be different.  It often is.
>> 
>> I can watch a one hour show in 40 minutes on my DVR. So most shows are
>> about 1/3 commercials. 
>
>My former DVR software (something branded by ATI) had a feature where it
>could speed up or slow down playback by a quarter or a third without
>affecting pitch.  I miss that.  But yeah, 1-hour shows take 44 minutes or
>so.  They're shorter if you skip the opening sequence and/or credits.
>0:40 is pretty short.  How do you do that?

I've gotten really good at bypassing commercials  without having to
back up or go forward to hit the next show segment. I also skip
opening and closing credits. I'll time it again to be sure.

I can go through American Idol in even less time. I fly by the fluff,
like the stuff that happens after the judges give their opinion. I
believe they have more than the normal number of commercials too.

-- 
Neal

"I love deadlines. I especially like the WOO****NG sound they make as they
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