Is Anyone Watching?

I usually don't watch much television. But, yesterday after getting over a cold, I decided to rest and just stay home and watch a movie on television. I looked through all the selections and found a few old movies that I thought would be enjoyable, and along with a little comfort food, settled down to rest and enjoy the show. After only seven minutes into the film, the ads began. They seemed like they went on forever before the movie resumed. After about ten more minutes of the film, and just beginning to get into the plot of the show, the ads began again. Finally, realizing that this was no longer going to be a restful time enjoying an afternoon movie, but rather an afternoon of watching advertising, I decided to just see how long the ads really lasted and started timing them. The next segment of ads lasted 5 minutes and I counted twelve different ads in the five minute segment. After the ads were finished, the movie played again for 7 minutes. The next ad group only lasted 4 minutes with 7 different ads and I was able to watch 6 minutes of the movie before the next set of eight ads came on again--lasting 5 minutes---and on and on. I thought to myself that people must be crazy to watch these free movies on T.V. with all this advertising to sit through!

Just to be fair, I thought perhaps it was just this one channel that played so many ads along with the movie they were showing. So, I decided to try the free movie on a different channel and see how many ads they showed in-between their movie segments. After 9 minutes into the movie, the ads came on and lasted 4 minutes----with twelve ads in all. The movie started again and went for about 8 minutes and the next group of ads lasted about 5 minutes and included 12 different advertisements. When I added up the totals for both films, this was the final results---movie #1 allowed the viewer on average 8 1/2 minutes of movie viewing before they interrupted with an average of 11 advertisements lasting on average of 4 minutes. Movie #2 allowed the viewer 8 minutes on average of the movie before they interrupted it with their advertisements which lasted 5 minutes and showed at least 8 ads. Needless to say--watching the "free" movies on T.V. are not only annoying and certainly not very relaxing, buy not really free---the advertisers pay for it and usually get their moneys worth.

It was obvious to me, after trying to enjoy a movie with all that advertising, that I wouldn't do that again. So, what are the alternatives? #1 You can pay for movies on demand. #2 You can rent a movie from Redbox or another rental place ( cheaper than the on demand movies). 3# You can pay extra for your Cable or Direct T.V. channels and include some of the movie channels. #4 You can just skip television altogether and go to a movie theater to watch a movie. 5# You can tape the movies you want to watch and skip through the ads. After my last stay-at-home movie experience,however, I think that next time I stay home feeling sick and want a break I'll just read a good book!