Do you record TV just to skip the ads?

I see you’re a man after my own heart, if an ad break comes on during something I’m watching, I turn over although it can be annoying if the next 10 programmes I decide to watch all seem to be on an ad break at the same time. I’ll just end up missing all of them. I love it when I can fast forward thru them.

Its also nice coming in 20 mins after a programme has started knowing I can skip the ads and end up watching the end of the programme “live”, any earlier in an “hour” long programme and I’ll catch up too soon 🙁

Yep! Agree 100% here. My wife and I now watch no commercial TV at all unless it’s been recorded or by using catch-up. The even sadder thing is that we also watch a few BBC programmes the same way. Some 1 hour documentary, house purchase/renovation progs especially are really 40 mins of interesting TV padded out to 1 hour. ‘Homes Under the Hammer’ is really addictive but some of the repetition is too much. Using the PVR makes it much more enjoyable.
I know that we’re in the majority in our circle of friends too so where does this leave commercial programming? It wouldn’t exist without advertising revenue. I wonder if the people who leave it switched on actually take much information in.
I’m also exactly the same with radio. Radio 3 does the job most of the time for me with a bit of R4. I’m not averse to Classic fm at times but I must be within range of the remote control to mute the ads.
I have been called a cultural snob and perhaps I am, but I do know that even if I’m in a minority here it’s still quite a sizeable one. I’ll be intrigued to see other posts on this subject.

Because of my shift patterns I rarely get to watch any TV live. First call is to record it on the PVR with a fallback of iPlayer for any BBC programmes. I try to record anything on BBC 1 or 2 as they come without a DOG but BBC 4 is better on iPlayer; smaller DOG.

Recording programmes is not only useful for fast forwarding through the adverts but also the extensive pre-ambles, re-caps and “coming up next” rubbish that producers think we can’t live without.

Absolutely!.. I’m with Sky due to poor reception out here in Boston Lincs and I love my Sky+ box. It seems no matter the channel – BBC’s included they all have a load of adverts. I have also noticed that many programs on commercial channels start / finish back to back then there is an advert 5 mins into the next program – by then your supposed to be hooked watching the next show – happens a lot in daytime TV. Also those bloody annoying “sponsored by” adverts, as if the two 7 minute ad breaks in a 30 minute slot isn’t enough! I find it insulting.

Does anyone find this familiar… Watch a 7 minute advert of drivel, watch ‘sponsored by’ ad drivel, watch program credits followed by a tedious 10 minutes of roundup of what is going to happen in the next 5-10 minutes, 5-10 minutes of actual program, another 7 minute ad break followed by ‘sponsored by’ ad etc etc etc. If you are watching a half hour program the viewer is probably watching about 17 minutes of program and 20 odd minutes of ads. Its ridiculous if you think about it. No wonder kids never watch TV and watch I-player.
Commercial TV has always been commercial TV though – more channel competition, more lower priced ads to pay the bills but the BBC should be ashamed of themselves. I rarely watch anything on there any more – mostly mindless fly on the wall drivel. I was really naffed off last week, being an F1 fan that the good old Beeb hadn’t even paid so we could watch the full Italian GP from start to finish – they put on highlights :-(.
About the only good thing on the BBC anymore is 6 music. I would love to not have a TV tax (because thats what it is) and just pay for what I want. Does Netflix etc have adverts??

The real issue is – has commercial television had it’s day in an era when virtually everybody skips or otherwise ignores the adverts?
Would people be willing to pay per view instead and be rid of the adverts altogether? It’s not as though the TV adverts are the all-powerful voice of the supplier they used to be.

I do exactly the same. I wouldn’t mind so much if the adverts were even slightly entertaining – years ago I seem to remember many were, but not any more. The only drawback of chase-play is that it is encouraging the number of ‘sponsored programmes’ which strive to ensure that you see their advert even if you chase-play! What I fear next is sponsorship WITHIN the programmes, that is, as part of the actual storyline. That would be impossible to avoid.
What I’d really like to see is some enterprising company producing a PVR that automatically deletes all adverts. I believe companies like SKY may do this, but you have to pay for them!

I know that not everyone can do this, but one of the best things I have acquired recently is a Virgin Tivo box. I can do the chase game without having to record as long as the TV is on the correct channel which is great. On commercial channels I always go to ‘on-demand’ which removes the ads for me. I think on digital channels they make sure that adverts are shown at the same time so I change to a non-commercial for 4 mins which seems to be just about right.

I assume that as a result of this piece by David Holes Which? will no longer be advertising on television.

I prefer to have commercial breaks as it allows me to go to the toilet, make a drink etc without missing anything.

Yes I totally agree, why has Ofcom artistic Smarties allowed the increase in the number of adverts and their length? Adverts used to be around 3 min now they seem to be 5 min. Not all channels are the same, the worst seems to be ITV 3 which is now totally unwatchable live. As a pensioner I watch a lot of TV and because I have come to hate the advert so much I now bought two PVR’s; A Humax and a Sagem. This means I have the potential to record four programs at the same time and rarely watch live TV. There will come a time when advertisers realise that no one watches adverts any more and will cease to fund commercial television. It seems to me that the commercial TV companies are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
The Sagem has one nice feature, if I am watching a live commercial station and an advert starts, I can pause live TV, and the Sagem shows the deferred time, so I wait until it shows 5 min and then press the stop button and I get live TV again having missed the adverts.

I understand that some of the TV broadcasters are looking at ways to target advertising to households, I suppose a bit like Google do. They can look at your veiwing habits and make decisions about the sort of adverts you might respond to – e.g. watch a lot of kids TV maybe McDonalds adverts or toy shops etc. I wonder if we would watch more ads if they were relevant.

Why don’t the commercial channels charge twice as much for the adverts? (Same amount of stoppages as now) Two minuets would not be so bad and it’s possible more people would watch the break.
I agree, ITV 3 is almost unwatchable and never start on time, a channel with no excuse, no late news etc.
Most of the best programs, for me, are on the BBC

Like Dave, I’ve been avoiding adverts using the methods described. I began doing so years ago using a Panasonic recorder that had a 30 sec skip function – I wish Sky+ had this. It was a problem having to wait until the recording had finished but I still preferred this to watching endless mindless ads.

Unlike Dave, I also prefer to watch delayed sports. This can be a problem though when friends phone or when using social networks. Making comments on Facebook about test match cricket having forgotton I’m 2 hours behind can be awkward!

I find now I get frustrated if I try to watch live history or other similar programmes. The pattern is so slow. 8 minutes of viewing, 5 minutes of adverts, followed by a 2 minute review of the first 8 minutes, presumably because they think you will have forgotten during the ads.

Surely there is a downside for the advertisers if people start to hate their ads. Even using the above methods I still catch glimpse of ads and find myself very hostile toward that particular company.

Some pvr remotes let you program how much you skip. I’ve set mine for 4 minutes which is the gap commercial tv companies are allowed to use for commercials. Perfect for missing them all.

I simply switch over to another channel when the adverts come on, although that does mean I often don’t switch back. I mutli-task a bit too, so I also just turn the sound off and read a magazine.

I actually enjoy a lot of the ads and the break gives you time to talk to your family, make a phone call etc.

Sorry I,m such a sad case.

I download all my tv programs to my computer and watch them on my TV with no annoying adverts whatsoever and my new Samsung TV has a super feature which allows you to cancel the very irritating raised volume that TV company’s but out , works BRILLENT !! all TV;s should have this.

I frequently use the PiP (Picture in Picture) feature to switch to another channel and then swap back when the ads have finished. I’l also go to a Beeb channel and fire up Teletext. The mute button is also a favourite, especially with the gocompare adverts; I’ll never use gocompare! I’ve just used the ITV Player for the first time. It appears that you can’t fastforward the initial adverts but if you’re careful you can get past the rest.

Just after 6:00 in the morning I’m on the sky app on iPad. I have my favourite channels saved. Whizz straight through to 19:00 in the evening and scan all the listings for the evening. Read anything that takes my fancy and if good hit the record link with series if appropriate. That’s it. I never watch live television. It will become a thing of he past. I will never let broadcasters tell me to watch something when they want me to watch it. I can look at the programme lengths and chop off minutes skipping adverts. As I approach them I stop the recording and use user defined to advance 4 minutes avoiding them completely. I do sometimes wonder if I am actually missing something I would be interested in.

Yes, you are a mirror image of my watching habits. My PVR usually has chapter points where the commercials are positioned, so it’s dead easy to skip. Having seen TV in the most of the world, I have no problem paying the License fee, keep up the good work BBC.

I can see the attraction of the iplayer and catchup tv if you don’t have a pvr but for me the picture quality just isn’t good enough. Compare HD pictures and SD pictures on a good tv and HD pictures are stunning. To my mind the picture definition on the iplayer, even with a fast broadband connection, is below SD picture quality. It’s a last resort for me.

Once in a while it’s nice to just draw the curtains across the TV screen, put on some intermission music and enjoy a pause as my wife walks round the room with a tray of Kia-Ora and Butterkist popcorn. Then when you hear the faint strains of Pearl & Dean’s signature tune you can carry on where you left off. Dah-der/dah-der/dah-der/dah-der- – dah-dah-dah // Dah-der/dah-der/dah-der/dah-der — Duh.

We seldom, if ever watch live TV. Anything of interest is recorded on PVR, one button push saves the whole series of programmes. Then play back if and when we choose to watch. That way not only can we skip any adverts and trailers, we can also FF the football and other sports (great for missing all the Olympics). This is also usefull for making the tea and re-runs after falling asleep. If you like to go this route get a decent recorder, cheap and nasty is not the way to go. At the moment we have only DTT recorder, but thinking of getting a satellite one as well so we can record and view more than two progammes at once.

One of my absolute loves is a PVR (a Panasonic actually) which provides a “x1.3” playback speed (also during catch-up). It doesn’t make the voices mickey-mouse – just speeds up those ghastly slow-talking presenters on so many programmes. 60 minutes compressed into 46 minutes. A dream!

Two phrases set me leaping for the PVR remote –

“After the break…”

“Coming up…”

Including the ads, I probably save about 20 minutes of a 1 hour program.

There seems to be a trend here……….we all think we can live without ads, course we can but where would the money come from to buy programs for us to record (devil’s advocate).
I lived in Germany some years ago and they used 5 minutes every hour on the hour giving time for many things!