Cable TV
By Murray Bourne, 20 Nov 2004
What is it with cable TV? There is certainly some quality on cable - if I watch anything it is Discovery Channel, Bloomberg and Australia's ABC Asia-Pacific.
I guess I was naive, but I expected cable TV to be advertisement free - after all, you are paying for it.
But you get this irritating ad break every 8 minutes or so, just like free-to-air stations. When you are engrossed in something meaty, it is damn annoying. At least ABC gives us some uninterrupted programmes.
But I keep paying the subscription - I can always tape the show and play it back later to get rid of the ads...
See the 2 Comments below.
12 Jan 2005 at 8:25 pm [Comment permalink]
I guess in the commercial world, every cent matters. In fact, almost all Singaporeans who owns a TV are paying an annual TV license fee of about S$120. The question I always asked myself :- are we paying for the ownership in the true sense, or are we paying for the TV programmes that come with it ? My guess is it's probably the latter.
But looking at the incredible amount of advertisements in between programmes on our local channels, I pondered likewise why so many advertisements when we're paying about S10 a month. Multiply that amount by a conservative 3 million people, that's a lot money, isn't it ?
We're paying something like $22 a month for an SCV basic tier. It's about double the amount most Singaporeans are paying for the local channels, but considering the reduced number of advertisements, I guess the reduced advertisements on SCV are justified.
To do away with advertisements completely, well, I'm not sure if any TV station would consider operating in that manner, to begin with.
14 Jan 2005 at 1:07 pm [Comment permalink]
The BBC and Australia's ABC (government funded in each case) used to be fiercely anti-commercial, in the interests of attempting to be impartial, especially in news reporting. (How can you report negatively on a company when there is the threat of removal of sponsorship?)
That has given away now to a moderated approach where there is limited advertising.
ABC cable still has quite a few shows that are commercial free - it is wonderful! π