By: jlsimons

jlsimons — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:36:57 +0000

Eureka! Dev S, this is the perfect example of why I started this blog. Your explanation makes sense, and I can see exactly how it can happen. Do you happen to have any data or a percentage on how often this happens? Does it happen more now than it used to? Also, do the networks enforce lengths on the commercials submitted? It would seem to me that it’s in their best interests not to be chopping off parts of their larger advertisers’ spots.

By: Dev S

Dev S — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 06:54:52 +0000

1) Some systems are automated and run local commercials when an encoded signal in the feed is sent, sometimes the signal is delayed, and whatever was playing in the place of the commercial is cut off and the proper commercial is layed over it. 2) Commercial breaks are a certain length based on increments of thirty seconds. So, a 2:30 break has 5-thirty second slots. Sometimes a commercial is :30.25 or even :31, thus, sliding into the next commercial’s slot. You have to give priority to the programming, so even if the last commercial isn’t finished playing, you switch back to the program, and cut off the end of the commercial. 3) The person operating the control board didn’t time things properly and may have gone to commercial late, or came back to programming too soon. As was my experience, most of the cut off commercial were due to human error, or miscalculations. When you see it, you have seen a mistake, but it isn’t always on the network’s end. usually it is some poor shmuck who was sleeping at the switches at the local level.

Comments on: Are you a victim of Commercialus Interruptus?

By: jlsimons

By: Dev S