Ad breaks on Korean TV and other countries...

It isn't the first time that the length and frequency of ads in regular Korean TV has caught my interest. It's one of the first things that I noticed when I first got here and just recently figured out that Korean household has some fee to pay if they have an existing TV at home even if it was just a regular free-to-air channel.
Viewers angry over commercial breaks
By Park Jin-hai

MBC and SBS, two of Korea's three major public broadcasters, surprised and angered viewers after they interrupted programs with commercial breaks last week. 

Viewers of the new dramas "Ruler: Master of the Mask" (MBC) and "Suspicious Partner" (SBS) both aired their first episodes May 10.

Half way into both shows, the broadcasters aired one-minute-long commercials with notices that the next 35 minutes of each drama would follow.

Under the current broadcasting law, public broadcasters cannot run mid-show commercials. However, for years the broadcasters claimed that this ban has been the main cause of their worsening financial situation and continuously called for scrapping it.

Regarding their apparent breaking of the law to get cash from the commercials, viewers showed anger for not being notified properly of the broadcasters' new advertizing format called "premium commercials." They complained their rights were violated.

"It was uncomfortable to see them split the shows in two in order to gain more profit from commercials. It really disturbs the flow of the story," said Shin Mi-hae, who watched "Ruler." Another viewer said, "Public airwaves are owned by the people, not broadcasters." 

Jang Bo-hye, another watcher, also said she was surprised by the pricing policy of the video on demand version, which treated the one episode as two episodes. The duration was the same but the price was doubled because of the split. "The abrupt break with the mid-show commercial is nonsense. Charging separate fees for the same show angers me even more," she said.

According to Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation (KOBACO) data, the 15-second advertisement rate for a public TV weekday drama, where commercials are played before and after the show, averages 13.5 million won. But the rate for a "premium commercial," a de facto mid-show commercial, costs more. "Although the rate is not double or triple the price, as some say, it is true that the rate is way above the average," said a KOBACO official.

MBC claims that its move was in consideration of the changing content consuming patterns of viewers who are more prone to watching short-length content through mobile devices than watching full-length content on TV. "We thought viewers, who are now used to the American soap operas where each episode runs 30 to 40 minutes, can easily accept our new form as well," said a MBC official.

As for the lack of advanced notice, the official said "it was in the TV schedule."

SBS's position treated the single episode as two 30 minute episodes. "At the end of each episode, we ran the commercials. So they were not mid-show commercials," said an SBS official.

(Korea Times, May 2017)

This recent newspaper article reminded me of the stark contrast on the amount of TV ads in my adopted country ROK and home country PH. An hour program back home would have around 5 minute ads after every 10 minutes of the show. An hour block of prime time program would run for 35 minutes but would have 25 minutes of ad scattered in all throughout the hour. By the end of the hour, one would feel that they watched more TV commercial than the program itself.

This got me interested and google about how is it in other countries. I got this feeling that PH would be similar with US as it has heavily influenced the former in many ways. It turns out that that is the case indeed. Europe, on the other hand, is somewhat in the middle. Not extremely like here in ROK nor on the other end like US, or maybe worse as PH.

US.  half hour blocks sitcoms : 22 minutes
           Full hour shows : 44 minutes
The general rule on scripts: one page = one minute. 
8-10 mins of ads and programs promos

Almost the same in PH in terms of the length of ads and placements., or even worse.

EUROPE
1 to 2 ad breaks in an hour..or 5 minute ad break every half an hour. 

SWEDEN
15 to 20 mins ad breaks

FRANCE
9 mins ad breaks

Googling some more, an interesting comment in a forum caught my attention.

"TV tends to be a more social experience in the U.S. from what I remember. You talk during commercials, make a snack, play with the dog, make a phone call, etc. These days it seems like the ability to pause on demand has replaced that, so it's now it's just annoying."

Social experience. Talk during ad breaks, go bathroom, do a chore, etc. That's basically what I had seen. Growing up with the slew of ads running on every program on TV taught me to multi-task. I can still be productive while my eyes are glued on the TV waiting for the ads to finish. But yeah, anyone would come to a point of hating those seemingly never ending ads.

So when I got to Korea, the ads at the end of ech show were a welcome sight. I realized that I sure can learn a thing or two with those ads. But yeah, I do appreciate that I can have a whole 10 minutes block of ad, do what I have to do and I'll still know what time I should be back to catch my fave show. It's pretty efficient. And I can still multi-task, albeit with only chores that would just require my hands or whatnot.

Now, I'm a bit torn on these opposite settings. But I guess, it's a little bit of a point of no return. Once you've done away with the frequent ad breaks, it will be frustrating to actually go back to that frequent ad breaks anymore.

This can be an interesting essay topic for my son to write about one of these days. The pros and cons of the frequency of ad breaks.

That's it for tonight. Goodnight.