why should the consumers pay and watch advertisements on TV channels?

Great point, Raghu. We shouldn't be paying for what we may not want. But then the problem might be technical. If channels charge money that money may not be enough to provide us content. So the content we get may be subsidized by the ad revenue that the channels get. Theoretically if a channel gets a lot of ad money it may be able to offer free content as some free newspapers do.

" Ah sob ondorki bat hai ... bahar kaise ah giya (Hindi)" - these were/ are Channels internal policy - how came out ?

Mr Raghu ... after 8 months of ur posting , even to-day this topic is relevant to be discussed. Why should we pay, directly or indirectly for watching Ads on the channels ? If we pay, may Channels show us  a daily chart of their revenues earned thru Ads ? They speak of transparency( in Govt jobs ? ), may they let us know ?

Or ... may we serve a notice to them under Rights To Information Act ?

Media ... U may make tall claims of neutrality ... may you oppose ur Advertisers, if need be ? May not ur openions/ ideas be influenced by your advertisers ?

May U not propogate "consumerism" blantly even amongst the poors, ur viewers,  who hardly manage a square meal a day and  may not afford luxary items as advertised in ur channel  ( yes, they are being influenced these days - it is detrimental though ) ?

Media, it is the high time, U re-consider ur policies, if unable, let us know publicly only thru ur channel.

absolutely great idea, it is somewhat slike prohobiting service msgs in mobiles, same can be achieved in electronic media too....

Exactly, In India everything is considered until & unless the matter goes really to it's worse. Channels are also doing same thing. When we watch TV; I'm asking many time myself; whether a Ads. are telecasting in between program or program in between Ads?  

There must be some control, If the meaning and taste of the program is spoiling then there is no use. I think customer have a right to see his favorite program at least 10-15 mins uninterrupted. 

our time is asset. any one can not use it free. if we are paying we should get what we need.

That is very true... not only this that we pay for tv programs and watch advertisements, but this breaks the continuity of  watching any programme, show, film etc. also. We are disturbed by these breaks which is too irritating some times.

But we can’t outrightly oppose them, as TV channel’s shops run on that. There should be a dedicated slot for these advertisements before or after program, or hourly slot for 10 mins with these tags "THESE WERE THE MAIN SPONSORS OF THIS HOUR" + "General advertisements" + "NOW THESE ARE THE SPONSORS OF THE NEXT HOUR". This way we can put forth the WIN-WIN solution, so that end of the day everybody is happy.

Or, there can be much more practical solution than that is mine.

I stopped watching TV as content on even information news and sports channel is polluted and slanted, and very often provocative rather than informative.

I dont even want this money as tme taken and garbage you get to carry in your subconscious is not worth it, such bad info quoted or misquote can put one in very professionally very embarassing situations.

Bottomline - All economics, In a capitalistic environment, we are free to subscribe or unsubscribe the channel.  Though, i do not like advertisements, I tend to see the big picture.  Why am I subscribing for a pay channel, One example reason is I will watch a movie XYZ.  If I subscribe the movie channel it is X Rs, the same movie, when I rent DVD it is X + Y Rs.

So, its all economics.  Personally, I hate ads kind od "necessary evil" in the wheel of media economis

Mr. Swamy,

In the print media, we can skip what we dont want to read and save our time. In the print media, we know what is coming with it when we pay for it.

Where as in the TV channels, the promise is that we get good entertainment programs with minimum breaks. Most of the terms in here are vaguely defined and the viewer is in for a surprise. In no purchase, the consumer is kept under ignorance until he opens the package.

If the service provider announces how much time will be ad time in the channels, and if possible what kind of advertisements etc, then it is justified.

I wouldn't like to pay for the channels and suddenly start seeing advertisements which cause some embarassing situations while watching with the family or friends and family.

I 100 % agree with you If you see foreign markets where the charges for set top boxes are as well as the channels are free from advertisement,while in India we are paying for set top boxes are subcriptions we are still made to watch this stupid Advt's 

Yes i fully agree with this. This people are taking advantage of our habits. well we are wasting our time watching sops and serials at tv or movie on big screens. By way of promoting their brands every body is spreading awareness they are making it compulsory for us to watch ads. by doing this they are shorting either entertainment or increasing ads and increasing no of episodes which is again very frustrating. 

Even Newspapers is working in similar model, we are paying only for the news but so many unsolicited ads

Thanks,

Karthick

I agree with you all however, in media content is king you are being charged for the premium content which is not offered by other free channels..

TV channel making money from three side one is through advertisements, direct consumers, leasing time to the production houses (serials)

As per my understanding how paid TV channel works is, Star TV (just eg) produce own content (gameshow, reality show, interviews) for which they have to spend their own money to make contents, here revenue source will be only from ad's..  

the other model is they leasing 30mins to 1 hr to production houses, from there they will make money

conclusion: with out ad's its difficult to make money for the content providers

Regards,

Karthick

The commercial ads, the repeated bickering of the anchors, the never changing channel's program ads and captions occupy more than 90% of the channel time that have become too much boring and intimidating. Even in the floor discussions, the impatient orchestrations of the Anchors and the ads occupy most of it leaving very little time for the participants for any meaningful discussions. 

Of course, the Channels need money to pull on the business. But it should be a balanced approach like what the BBC is doing. The minimum they should do is not to interrupt the viewers paid time with advertisements and channels own business propagation materials in pay channels.

Many of us would not mind paying for pure news channels. If the trend continues, viewers will be compelled to go back to Doordashan's Channels.

I really agree with your ideas regarding advertise in televisions. There should be separate channels which would work for only advertisement purpose. So, that we cant waste our time in watching useless advertisements. Advertisement Channels should be catagorise segments wise of products as well as services, so that the people who willing to watch advertisement can see only those channels. 

We are paying on every step. At work we pay TDS/FBT… on our salary, we pay on every step when we spend the salary, In Mall we pay wat/Ser tax… , if we watch movie we pay entertainment tax, traveling Tool tax…… What we got after paying for all these? Polluted air to breath, impure water to drink.

The fundamental right of a human are unfulfilled in INDIA & we are discussing 5 Sec TVC interruption is justified on Paid channels. I welcome the discussion & topic of us our life. I totally agree  with Raghu Kastury and it’s only Paid chandelles for Asian region like Discovery/BBC/CNN/NetGeo… give commercials, in developed country all paid channels are commercial free, Because this is the basic difference between paid and free to air channels.

Yes, I agree with u but I think ads are also needful to us; this is the source of the marketing and TV or TV channels are just like mediators, so this are good for us by sitting at home only we come to know more and more about the things with more details and prices which we required.

 Even though I agree with u…….they are charging us for wasting our time, right? Then what is wrong here?

The thing is that they show the same add repeatedly “sponsored by XYZ in each break” which is unnecessary, 3-5 sponsors and one time add in one complete series is more than enough for our info and for there marketing purpose. So it will be good to both of us.

I agree with you in toto.

Hi, is it not simple logic?

viewer's time also has got value; right?

If we pay for viewing a movie of 1 hour duration in the pay channel and if

it goes on and on with all advertisements for 2 hours,

the channel has used 1 hour of our time to make money for the channel.

So it is only fair for us to ask for proportionate refund.

Markand I got your point. It's ok when you are showing advertisement for few seconds on minutes or so . But if advertisment is of abnormal high quantity then I think channel should mention that our programme will consist of so much advertisement. In some channels 3hrs movie takes more then 5 hrs. to complete. I don't think that these extra 2 hr. is bearable to anybody for the sake of advertisement. 

Mr. Swamy,

We pay small amount but billions pay that amount.

We are paying small amounts to the cinema hall fellow, but let us see what will happen if he breaks more than once?

Makrand I could not understand what you are trying to say? Here we are talking about advertisment in between programmes. We subscribe for programmes not advertisment. No where it's mentioned that we have to see so much advertisment during the programme. If any channel wants to show advertisment they should clearly mention that our programme consist of so.... advertisement and the aforesaid pay package consist of both programmes and advertisement that will shown during the programme.   

There are some company who pays to subscribe advertisement like mGinger.com  where you get money in return of subscribed advertisement.

Very interesting Debate.

I feel it is time that Channels and cable operators start paying us consumers to take a connection and view those advertisements with of course those small titbits of NEWS and SERIALS in between!!!!

And of course those films can be shown in 5 minute piesces for the full day and night included between the advertisements.

Even BCCI should start paying us for viewing the players in advertisements more rather than on the playing field !

Sounds that we are in for a change and INDIA can become the trend setter in this.!!!

I think that advertisement is key from which we can sell the desert, anything, so its cost is chargeable, every and each channel has advertisement as soon as possible advertisement comes and goes, in one serials, etc

I never thought for this, but yes it is true Mr. Kastury, you raised a very good point here....

Its very nice point Raghu what you posted here.Its true that just for the ads I avoid watching movies even if I will to see.We should get return for all the advertisements as these ads just waste time of many corporates who just want to relax withTV but just avoid due to shortage of time.I am really fade up with these advertisements,while theadvertisers pay huge lumpsum amount to the respective channels.

We should find out some solution for this.Thanks for such nice idea.

Dear Mr. Mallaya

We paid according to the promise - say Sports channel, Movie channel, News channel in English language etc. We have never been told by any of these channel guys that there will be an ad content of almost 50 % in this and we are paying for it. Would you do the same thing if cellphone guys chrge you like this? Will you allow them to interrupt your conversations with a commercial break for every 10 minutes and ask you to pay for it?

When everyone in the advertising business gets paid heavily, why not the consumer whose time is taken for granted by the channels and dump the ads on our heads? In reality consumers are paying twice- Once while watching the advertisement and the other while buying the product, where the advertising cost is included.

So, we can go to consumer court contesting this!!!!

Dear Mallaya,

While buying the channels, we get to hear about the conetnts of the transmission - Like sports channels, movie channels, hindi or English. Accordingly we choose what we want and what we dont want. But no channel guy specifies there will be ads against my paid time. Using this point alone we can go to consumercourts.

i watch TV as i don't have resources for other means of relaxation / enjoyment::

that's why a person like me has to pay the cable operator / tata sky recharge ::

same logic holds good for 80% indian middle class junta:::

Agree

Raghu it's really nice thought. Yes if we are paying for channel then we are suppose to watch only programmes mentioned in the channel. In today's world everybody's time is precious and as we know "Time is Money".

Everybody plan out his time to watch a particular programme say for 30 minutes but if actiualy watch it it will cross more then 45 minutes. This additional 15 minute is just waste of time. It is horrible when you watch any movie on TV channel. 3 hr. movie takes more than 5 hr. to commplete.

So who is going to pay for this additional time. If we are suppose to spend additional 2 hr then I think we should be paid for that.

Yes! I agree that at least paid channels should give a content worth 1 hour or half an hour..without any advertisements...Or at least have few channels with no advertisements...