As if you didn’t already have enough reasons to cut the cord and rely on streaming services to get your TV fix, cable stations themselves are giving you another one. The Wall Street Journal reports that some cable stations have actually started speeding up their programs so they can squeeze more ads into their given time slots, which means that not only are characters on shows moving slightly faster, but their voices are slightly higher pitched as well.
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“As they contend with steep ratings declines, many top cable networks are jamming more ads into programming to meet audience guarantees made to advertisers and prop up revenue despite falling ad prices,” the Journal explains. “Speeding up the actual content is a more subtle tactic TV networks use to achieve a higher volume of ads. TBS also has sped up sitcom reruns of Seinfeld and other shows, and sister network TNT has also employed the approach as well. Viacom Inc. ’s TV Land has done the same with Friends reruns.”
So let’s think about this: You could either pay for a monthly cable subscription that will not only charge you extra money for HD programming but that will deliver sped-up shows and extra ads… or you could pay for Netflix, Hulu, Sling TV or your streaming service of choice and get HD content, regularly paced shows and fewer ads.
Is the cable industry even trying to keep TV subscribers at this point?
