Furious over new advertisements in iTunes content.

Wordman · Nov 27, 2012

sulliweb said:
Hmm... No offense dude, but while I don't disagree with you. I also don't disagree with him either. I don't like the adverts in purchased content, but if you're worried about chambord monitoring his blood pressure,there are a few folks on here that we need to rush straight to an ER... I think the point he was making was that some people on here are going a bit overboard in the way they were saying things, not that they don't have a valid point.

As for the rest, he has his freedoms and so do you. Still, you mentioned that his posts seemed a bit judgemental, so you might reread your last post as well. From the outside looking in, it doesn't seem like a very positive post, even possibly a bit judgemental back at him. It's probably not what you intended, but he may not have meant for his posts to come across as judgemental either.

My advice, we just need to all take a breath. No point in killing a good topic over nothing...

As for me, yeah, the adverts are annoying, but I've only ever seen them on Fox shows. Thankfully, at this point, I'm not buying any. Out of sheer curiousity, has anyone seen them on shows from another provider besides Fox, or is it just them? I buy shows off of USA, CBS, and SyFy, and I don't believe any of mine, at present, have them.

Don't worry - no offence taken.

Of course, everyone's take is subjective. Even your post could be taken as judgemental, as it's solely your opinion based on your judgement. But I draw the line at offensive rants at people and calling them immature; that is certainly overboard, there's no call for that. And I doubt I'm the only one who found that post a little aggressive - take a look at some of the other responses.

More to the point, it appears that Apple have removed the offending ad, much to their credit. So given their position of not being easily swayed, they clearly agree with the OP.

chambord · Nov 27, 2012

fhall1 said:
The problem is, it's 23 seconds NOW....what's to stop them next year from making it 2 minutes? Then 5, then 10? Even you must have a "tipping point" where it's too much for content you're paying for.

That's a "slippery slope" argument. It carries no weight.

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Wordman said:
Don't worry - no offence taken.

Of course, everyone's take is subjective. Even your post could be taken as judgemental, as it's solely your opinion based on your judgement. But I draw the line at offensive rants at people and calling them immature; that is certainly overboard, there's no call for that. And I doubt I'm the only one who found that post a little aggressive - take a look at some of the other responses.

More to the point, it appears that Apple have removed the offending ad, much to their credit. So given their position of not being easily swayed, they clearly agree with the OP.

Meh, I don't think my pointing out that the OP's reaction was immature was an "offensive rant." It was merely a pretty accurate observation.

s15119 · Nov 27, 2012

Wordman said:
And now you've just gone to all the trouble of replying. Now who's reacting?

Can't you just let the guy vent his frustration?

Your just now responding to a comment I made in September? Ok. I did nothing to stop him from "venting his frustration". And I did not over-react. His post was childish. I pointed it out. It's how discsussions go. Have a nice day.

Wordman · Nov 27, 2012

s15119 said:
Your just now responding to a comment I made in September? Ok. I did nothing to stop him from "venting his frustration". And I did not over-react. His post was childish. I pointed it out. It's how discsussions go. Have a nice day.

"His post was childish". No - you think his post was childish. There's a difference. I actually think yours was pretty petty, but as you say, that's how discussions go. As to whether or not you over-reacted, that's another one of these prickly subjective issues. Have a nice day yourself.

And I apologise for replying late for something you posted in September. I've been kinda busy, and hadn't realised there was a deadline.

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chambord said:
That's a "slippery slope" argument. It carries no weight.

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Meh, I don't think my pointing out that the OP's reaction was immature was an "offensive rant." It was merely a pretty accurate observation.

Accurate according to who?

swiftaw · Nov 27, 2012

If the ad only appears at the beginning then right click on the episode, select Get Info and Options then change the Start Time to 23 seconds. Now any time you play the episode it'll start at the 23 second point, thus skipping the ad.

s15119 · Nov 27, 2012

Wordman said:
"His post was childish". No - you think his post was childish. ?

Yes, exteremly.

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Wordman said:
"No - you think his post was childish

Accurate according to who?

You don't seem to have an understanding of hiw this works. My statements are my opinion. The same for other posters.

Best of luck in your future endeavors. You'll be ignored by me from here on out. Have a nice day.

Switchback666 · Nov 27, 2012

Torrent + no ads = problem solved

Wordman · Nov 27, 2012

s15119 said:
Yes, exteremly.

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You don't seem to have an understanding of hiw this works. My statements are my opinion. The same for other posters.

Best of luck in your future endeavors. You'll be ignored by me from here on out. Have a nice day.

Well, if you'd bothered to read my previous posts properly (instead of misquoting me by turning my statement into a question), you'd see I'd explained my understanding of subjectivity at some length. So I'm perfectly aware of "how this works". It's a shame that you couldn't comprehend that, but no biggie. Have a good day yourself.

Asclepio · Nov 28, 2012

i'm looking forward to ads at beginning of a song

MagnusVonMagnum · Nov 28, 2012

26139 said:
Technically, you didn't pay full price, you paid a license fee to iTunes that allowed you to download and view the content.

Without advertising support, we'd pay a lot more for video from iTunes and similar.

Bologna. Most iTunes content is as much or MORE than the comparable DVDs or Blu-Ray discs. And those one can rip ad-free and put them into iTunes themselves and at better quality to boot. It's just another reason NOT to buy from iTunes.

23 seconds though? Seriously? That's either 10 or 5% of the show. Seems reasonable to me.

Disappointing, sure.

Give an inch, get a mile sooner or later. Most TV shows are already getting shorter and shorter. It used to be a show would be 23 minutes long with 7 minutes of ads. Now it's more like 19 minutes of show and 11 minutes of ads. Just look at the length of old Star Trek episodes (typically 50 minutes long compared to 44-47 now for an hour show). How long will it be before you get 15 minutes of show and 15 minutes of commercials for a half-hour show??? It's horrible. If they want me to watch ads, they could at least make them funny/entertaining like during the Super Bowl instead of boring drivel that just makes me reach for the fast forward button on my DVR.

pirata · Nov 28, 2012

An alternative is to just download it off the internet for free no ads, no licenses.

Mak47 · Dec 1, 2012

I actually don't mind the ad. If it was a product ad or it interrupted the show itself I might be bothered, but it's 23 seconds at the beginning of the show and it presents more content that I might be interested in.

I'm a cord cutter, I don't have cable, so I don't mind things like this that might turn me on to something new I'd like.

I think things like this will become the norm, even for purchased content. As people move away from cable and traditional broadcast TV, networks will lose the ability to bundle their various programs and properties. I'll happily accept watching 30-60 seconds of content trailers if it means people don't have to buy 150 channels of crap just to get to the dozen shows they actually want to see.

MagnusVonMagnum · Dec 2, 2012

Mak47 said:
I actually don't mind the ad. If it was a product ad or it interrupted the show itself I might be bothered, but it's 23 seconds at the beginning of the show and it presents more content that I might be interested in.

I might not mind watching a commercial ONCE, but not EVERY SINGLE TIME I want to view the content I purchased (some of those ads don't even make sense 15 years later after the company has gone out of business like in the case of some DVD ads that try to 'force' you to watch them by disabling DVD player controls. With online content, they could make it so that it plays once and then never again. Advertisers pay to advertise during TV Shows ONCE, not until the end of time and so it should be with online content. Furthermore, it's compounded by the insult that you are PAYING to watch the content, whereas if you watch it on network television you can get it 'free' over the air. Cable already modified that one by trying to make you pay to watch commercials. Thankfully, DVRs have evened the score and let you skip the crap entirely (after all you are PAYING to watch Cable/Satellite, unlike network television that you can obtain for 'free' and that entitles you to SKIP their freaking crap ads, IMO). You only live young for a short time, who wants to waste that time watching ads for feminine hygiene products or some other useless junk. At least the online revolution has lead to targeted ads that might at least offer up ads for something I might actually buy, not something I cannot even use.

I think things like this will become the norm, even for purchased content.

It's sad, but you're probably right. The only way the rest of us that DO mind such crap can fight back is to simply refuse to purchase anything with known ads in it and that's exactly what I intend to do. As much as you might think an episode of a TV Show costs, I guarantee you that if everyone in America paid $1 for an episode that it didn't cost THAT much to make...not by a freaking long shot (i.e. that would be over $600 MILLION), so I don't buy this idea that the $40 purchase pride for a season of a given show doesn't even come close to paying for its production. The heck it doesn't. $40 x 1 Million customers (1/600 the market JUST in the U.S., let alone world-wide since this is a global economy, after all) = $400 Million. Now maybe with Charlie Sheen, a show like Two And A Half Men that cost $3 million an episode to make on average might eclipse that example figure, but then that show was making ratings that made up for that 10x over.

Even movies that FAIL at the box office USUALLY make up their losses eventually on DVD/Blu-Ray/PPV over time and that's because they keep on selling to essentially infinity (as in as long as the human race has digital entertainment at least into the future) on those formats.

In the end, this is just another greedy cash grab by Apple and/or the entertainment industry to make even MORE money at YOUR expense. "Not minding" is playing right into their game. I didn't pay them $40 to watch commercials. I paid them $40 so I wouldn't have to watch them. Otherwise, I might as well just watch it on TV.

spacepower7 · Dec 2, 2012

Tip - Start Time

Glancing over 4 pages of comments, it didn't see this tip mentioned.

Forgive me if it was mentioned.

TIP

Selected movie or TV show in iTunes.

Command-I to get movie info.
Click Options tab
Select start time and change to 24 seconds, I think 24.00
Save

Boom, now whenever you play this TV episode, it will start 24 seconds into the file, therefore you will never have to watched those ads again, except maybe steaming from icloud?

I'd be more annoyed about the hundreds of MB these ads are wasting.

DP812 · Dec 2, 2012

Rigby said:
I have never seen a TV show DVD that has ads before every single episode. Usually they have some easily skippable movie trailers when you insert the DVD, nothing more.

Depends on the movie. Many DVDs these days have tried to disable the skip or menu functions on the advertisements when you start a disc.

26139 said:
Technically, you didn't pay full price, you paid a license fee to iTunes that allowed you to download and view the content.

Comparing season 4 of Sons of Anarchy on Amazon to the iTunes Store, you are right that the iTunes version of the full season is slightly cheaper, however iTunes HD is not the same as Blu-ray quality, so it could be argued that you're actually paying for what it's worth. But most movies and TV shows on iTunes are identical in cost to the DVD/Blu-ray release. In the case of new releases, it may even be somewhat more expensive depending on where you go. It's been a while since I've been in one, but I recall Best Buy used to sell new releases at a $5 discount. Haven't seen any such new release discounts on iTunes releases.

spacepower7 · Dec 4, 2012

So did anyone try my simple solution which has been around for years?

Please let me know if it works for anybody bc it works for me. You may have to quit iTunes and the restart?

It seems this thread has become about debating problems and whether or not they are problems, politics and business, rather than solving problems.

Solution above.

VulchR · Dec 5, 2012

Actually I was thinking about getting an AppleTV - I have limited free time and I loathe adverts. It seems like reading this thread that the ads were for one episode but were removed by Apple. Thus, would it be possible to give me an idea of whether ads appear in iTunes video content (I actually do not have any iTunes videos).

rci2950 · Dec 5, 2012

apple likes nickels and dimes.

bushido · Dec 5, 2012

so lets see ....

iTunes 2,99€ for an episode in HD which is DRM protected and on top of it comes with ads and takes longer to be available online!

the "internet" 0€ for an episode in HD with dual audio (english & german for example) which is not DRM protected and without ads and ironically even faster download times and available almost instantly within minutes after airing ...

hmmmm and those studio exes are seriously surprised? they are stuck in the early 90s with their business model

bryan85 · Dec 5, 2012

Well this is really disappointing...

I just downloaded the latest episode of Sons of Anarchy: "J'ai Obtenu Cette". Not only did it have a commercial at the beginning of the episode, it had two of them at the end. Looking back at prior episodes I noticed they have been adding advertisements at the end for awhile now. I guess Apple is content with allowing advertisements in the content. Slippery slope indeed. This marks the last time I will purchase anything from iTunes.

dgalvan123 · Dec 6, 2012

bryan85 said:
It was an ad for the network FX and some of their shows.

This kind of ad is very common for purchased content, at least on physical media (Blu ray and DVD). Disney DVD for the lion king will advertise the remastered version of Pinnochio, for example. Or a DVD of Game of Thrones will start with ads for other HBO shows. Annoying, but very common. And it's not like you are getting ads for unrelated products like you do when you watch live TV. You are just getting ads for the content-providers other content.

I agree that it sucks philosophically because the whole idea of iTunes is you are paying specifically to avoid ads.

But, in practice, just hit the skip-ahead button a couple times and you blaze right past it in 2 seconds.

Getting so upset that you "can't enjoy the episode I just bought" is an overreaction.

hexonxonx · Dec 6, 2012

Fox did this a few years ago with the Simpsons by adding a few minutes of ads at the end of each episode.

If they add them in at the end it;s not so bad.

Mak47 · Dec 6, 2012

MagnusVonMagnum said:
In the end, this is just another greedy cash grab by Apple and/or the entertainment industry to make even MORE money at YOUR expense. "Not minding" is playing right into their game. I didn't pay them $40 to watch commercials. I paid them $40 so I wouldn't have to watch them. Otherwise, I might as well just watch it on TV.

This is where we differ...at least somewhat.

I didn't pay for the season specifically to not see commercials. I paid for it so that I can get the episodes in near real time without a cable subscription. I also know that I would have ended up buying the show on DVD or Blu Ray to add to my collection at some point, so getting it right away from iTunes is a sensible move for me.

Having not chosen it for it being a commercial free option, I am of course less inclined to be upset by this.

Now, all that said, what I don't mind are content trailers. I would have a problem with product ads that were permanently tied to my purchased product. This is particularly true if they interrupt the program.

I doubt that Apple gets one thin dime from them including the trailer at the beginning. It's clearly a move by the studio to push additional content sales, and it's honestly a sensible move.

As we move away from traditional cable and broadcast TV, content providers will need to have a way to inform consumers about the various pieces of content they have available. It's only sensible to do this by advertising a similar program to the one you're currently watching.

If we want content creators to dedicate themselves to a digital first (or only) strategy--or even put it on a level playing field with broadcast/cable--they need to know that they will have a way to continually attract an audience. Allowing short, targeted, content driven advertisements like this is probably the least intrusive way to do it.

While your financial numbers are interesting, they don't reflect the reality of media consumption at all. There is no film or TV show that will be consumed by the entire population in any format. Even assuming sales of 1 million digital units is a pipe dream at this point. (A show like SOA sees between 4-7 million cable viewers--and it's a huge hit)

The revenue from digital sales pales in comparison to what these studios bring in from bundling content with cable providers and selling ads. It's not even close, not remotely.

We cannot ask these people to make their content available in these formats and expect them to do it as a charity. If they hope to build sales up to 1 million units, which would bring in a ton of revenue, they need to be able to attract and grow their audience.

iTunes TV content isn't about buying content like you would a DVD. The big picture is about replacing the traditional content delivery system.

MagnusVonMagnum · Dec 7, 2012

Mak47 said:
This is where we differ...at least somewhat.

I didn't pay for the season specifically to not see commercials. I paid for it so that I can get the episodes in near real time without a cable subscription.

Well, that's nice, but it's not the reason for the iTunes store originally (which was music and then movies and they most certainly are selling movies as an alternative to DVD/Blu-Ray at this point). TV Shows could work as an alterntive to Cable, but I personally don't want to OWN them, necessarily. I would prefer to just "rent" them for less money (they tried that and got rid of it for some reason when ATV2 came out!) Most people watch a TV Show ONCE and never again whereas movies usually get watched many times (and yet they 'rent' those too). And then there's the fact I get my Internet from my cable company and they probably have a sizeable surcharge if I don't get at least basic cable with it.

The ironic thing here is that like any form of copy protection, they end up punishing the people that do the right thing and buy their content and the people that just download the torrent get it commercial free and with no copy protection on it what-so-ever (so it can be used with any player and any future computer system). When is the industry going to wake up and realize by handicapping their systems, they only end up driving business away? It was the same with the 99 cent song model (where they want to force you to buy albums even if you don't like the whole thing), etc.

Like I said, the only way consumers can get this to stop is to not buy it and let Apple know. Whether it's Apple's "fault" or not is irrelevant to me. I don't want to watch 10-year old commercials a decade from now just because I want to watch an episode of something or a movie. I might as well just buy the Blu-Ray and rip it myself and then I can avoid the entire menu structure, animations, FBI warnings, etc. that I have zero interest in too. I just want to watch the movie or TV show, after all, not waste my life watching redundant garbage.

bushido · Dec 8, 2012

MagnusVonMagnum said:
The ironic thing here is that like any form of copy protection, they end up punishing the people that do the right thing and buy their content and the people that just download the torrent get it commercial free and with no copy protection on it what-so-ever (so it can be used with any player and any future computer system). When is the industry going to wake up and realize by handicapping their systems, they only end up driving business away? It was the same with the 99 cent song model (where they want to force you to buy albums even if you don't like the whole thing), etc.

couldnt agree more, its so dumb beyond believe.

dear customer thx for being a honest citizen buying our content but anyway here have some ads

Furious over new advertisements in iTunes content.

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