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Comment by add-sub-mul-div | Hacker News Reader

Cable style commercials are ideal for me, out of all the possible choices. I have full control over the DVR video stream, nothing is unskippable.

Streaming technology had to be temporarily superior in order to win adoption, but now that it's mature it will only evolve in the direction of taking away control and privacy from viewers.

And if I'm watching live and can't skip ads, I prefer a full 3-minute break at a predictable cadence to more random and frequent 10-30 second interruptions. I have time to get up and do something, or else mute and browse on my phone for a few minutes.

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1. Build goodwill

2. Destroy competitors

3. Degrade service in pursuit of maximum profit

Is anyone else starting to feel cynical? I feel like anything good today is just portending a tomorrow even worse than yesterday.

Embrace, extend, extinguish. A tale as old as any in computing (and more broadly, many other product areas)

Embrace, extend, extinguish, enshittify

> I feel like anything good today is just portending a tomorrow even worse than yesterday.

Everything has a lifespan, without exception. The only variable is how long that lifespan is. That's just how things work.

>Is anyone else starting to feel cynical?

Been here for a long while. Welcome, friend!

Capitalism

Maybe research has shown the adverts get less engagement with longer, more predictable scheduling. Technology these days makes it relatively easy.

Most people won't bother getting up for the shorter adverts - so whilst on mute - the advert will get your attention visually.

Win-win in the eyes of the advertiser.

Yeah I take it for granted they wouldn't be doing this if they didn't know it was effective at extracting more attention and value from viewers.

> Cable style commercials are ideal for me

Those commercials are why I stopped watching cable, and why I stopped watching broadcast TV, in the first place.

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