A census on commercials
Back in 1992, Bruce Springsteen told us that he had 57 channels but sadly there was nothing on. If he rewrote the song in 2004 he'd tell us that there were now hundreds of channels but they showed ads most of the time.
In the past two years the number of TV ads that the average man or woman sees each week has increased by more than 20 per cent.
According to a report by media agency Initiative, the average adult saw 80 TV ads a day in 2003. In its report "Seeing Through the Clutter", released today, the agency determined TV clutter levels in 45 countries by taking the cumulative viewing for all the TV ads transmitted in an average week and dividing that figure by the total population.
The results make for interesting reading. Indonesian TV watchers saw an average of 852 ads every week in 2003, while in the second most cluttered market, the US, consumers were being targeted by 817 commercials a week, more than 100 a day.
China, too, has serious clutter problems. A soaring economy and a raft of new TV stations means that the average number of ads being seen in the world's biggest market has jumped by 20 per cent to 671 a week. Initiative says that some stations were running 10-15-minute ad breaks, although since the beginning of this year the government has ordered them to restrict it to an eighth of programming time, which is seven-and-a-half minutes an hour during primetime.
Another high-flier in the world of clutter is New Zealand, where viewers can catch 664 ads a week, as the three main broadcasters run an average of 12 minutes of ads an hour.
The rise of TV clutter around the world is due to an increase in the number of TV channels that people can watch. Satellite and cable channels generally have fewer restrictions on how much advertising they can show. In the UK, for example, they can show an average of nine minutes of advertising every hour, compared with seven for ITV, Channel 4 and Five.
In addition, the use of shorter ad spots means consumers now get more messages in each ad break. In the 1960s, the average US ad was 60 seconds long; brands now tend to use 30-second spots.
These figures don't take into account the broadcasters' own trailers for future shows or messages from programme sponsors. In India, for example, TV stations' own promos take up 60 per cent of non-programming time.
Sue Moseley, managing director of Initiative Futures, the media research division, says the fact that clutter levels were starting to stabilise in the US and Indonesia offers a glimmer of hope, but warns that the effectiveness of TV advertising is being eroded.
The research found that in the UK, ad breaks that are more than three-and-a-half minutes long are 25 per cent less effective at delivering short-term sales benefits. "It can't carry on," she says. "People will find it less effective and there'll be a consumer backlash at some point."
TV clutter in the UK has yet to hit Indonesian levels, thanks in part to tighter regulations and ad-free public service broadcasters. Nevertheless, adults see an average of 293 ads a week and broadcasters are starting to take action.
For the past year IDS, which sells ads for UK TV and Flextech, has been experimenting with shorter ad breaks on the UK TV channels. In some cases the volume of advertising has been cut by up to 30 per cent. Breaks on UK Drama, for example, were restricted to one-and-a-half minutes. "Viewers are more prepared to sit though the ads, knowing that they do not have to wait long," says executive sales director James Wildman.
It's a risky strategy because buyers of TV advertising slots reward sales houses for their share of commercial viewing. Cut the number of ads you show, and unless more viewers tune in your revenue will fall.
IDS has been cautious about extending the experiment to its bigger channels but the commercial impacts, which measure how many people view one commercial once on its channels, are up 20 per cent so far this year. Shorter ad breaks may have contributed but the complexity of the TV market means it is difficult to prove. Initiative's answer to the problem is to differentiate between the number of people watching and the number actually paying attention.
Putting cameras on top of TV sets to monitor viewer behaviour found that a good show might get 64 per cent of the audience paying attention in the break rather than zapping, chatting or making a cuppa, compared with 20 per cent for less involving programming.
Other media agencies suggest that advertisers will start to put an even higher premium on the first and last spots on the ad break, and that sponsorship of programmes will become more popular, as this gets the commercial message closest to the content.
Moseley warns that increasing ad clutter could be the spur that encourages consumers to adopt personal video recorders, a technology that will enable ad avoidance. "The more irritation that's caused among consumers, the greater the likelihood that PVRs will take off," she says.
收看广告的国情
1992年时，布鲁斯?斯普林斯廷(Bruce Springsteen)告诉我们，他有57个频道，但可惜上面什么也没有。如果他在2004年重写这首歌的话，他会告诉我们，现在有成百上千个频道，但它们绝大多数的时间是在放广告。
过去两年里，每人每周平均收看的电视广告数量增加了20%多。
根据媒体公司Initiative的一份研究报告，2003年，成年人每天平均收看80条广告。这份名为《透过干扰看世界》(Seeing Through the Clutter)的报告于本周公布，它通过对每周平均播放的电视广告的累计收视，除以总人口，从而得出了45个国家的广告收看程度。
这些结果读起来很有趣。印度尼西亚的电视观众在2003年每周平均收看852条广告，而第二大干扰市场是在美国，消费者每周要被817条广告盯上，这相当于每天100多条广告。
中国也存在严重的广告干扰问题。激增的经济和大量新生的电视台意味着，在这个全球最大的市场，每周被收看的广告数量剧增20%，达617条。Initiative表示，一些电视台以前的广告时段长达10-15分钟，而从今年年初开始，中国政府已经要求它们把广告时间缩短到节目长度的八分之一，也就是说，在黄金时间，每小时有7.5分钟的广告。
另一个广告干扰的佼佼者是新西兰，在那里，观众每周可看到664条广告，因为三个主要的广播电视公司每小时平均播放12分钟的广告。
人们可以接收的电视频道的增加，造成了全世界电视广告干扰的上升。卫星频道和有线电视在能够播放多少广告上，通常更少受到限制。例如在英国，它们每小时可以播放平均9分钟的广告，而相比之下，英国独立电视台(ITV)、4频道(Channel 4)和5频道(Channel Five)只播放7分钟。
此外，广告时段的缩短意味着，消费者现在每个广告段会接收到更多的信息。60年代时，美国广告片的平均时长为60秒，而现在品牌多倾向于使用30秒的版本。
这些数字还没有包括广播公司自己的节目宣传或节目赞助信息。例如，在印度，电视台自己的广告片要占到非节目时间的60%。
媒体研究部门Initiative Futures的执行董事休?摩思利(Sue Moseley)认为，干扰水平开始在美国稳定下来，而印尼也展露出希望的曙光，但是,她警告说，电视广告的有效性正被逐渐销蚀。
他们的研究发现，在英国，超过3.5分钟的广告段在传递短期促销信息的有效性，下降了25%。“不能一直这样下去，”她说，“人们会发现广告的效力下降，到了一定的时间，消费者会出现反弹。”
英国的电视广告干扰当然还没有到印尼的程度，这部分是由于更严格的管制，以及不带广告的公共广播公司。不过，成年人每周还是要看到293条广告，而广播电视公司正开始采取行动。
过去一年，为UK TV和Flextech销售广告的IDS尝试在UK TV上试行更短的广告段。某些情况下，广告量削减了多达30%。例如，UK Drama频道上的广告段被限制到1.5分钟。“观众更可能坐着看完广告，因为他们知道用不着等很长时间，”销售总裁詹姆士?维尔德曼(James Wildman)表示。
这是一个带有风险的策略，因为购买广告时段的人是靠商业收视挣钱的。减少了广告播放量，除非有更多的观众选择这个频道，否则年收益就会下降。
对于把这项试验扩展到其它更大的频道，IDS也小心翼翼，但是今年的商业效果――即多少人在某频道看过一次广告的测量――目前为止上升了20%。广告段的缩短或许起了作用，但因电视市场的复杂性，这一点很难得到证明。Initiative对这些难题的回答是，对收视人数的统计和事实上关注的人数加以区分。
在电视机上放一个摄像头监测观众的行为就会发现，一档好节目能吸引64%的观众关注广告时间，而不是到了播广告时就转换频道，聊天或去泡茶；相比之下，一个不那么吸引人的节目就只能得到20%的观众。
另一些媒体公司认为，广告客户会开始为广告段的正一和倒一位置加收更多的广告费率，并且，由于节目赞助使广告信息最贴近节目内容，所以也会变得更受欢迎。
摩思利警告说，广告干扰的加剧可能成为鼓励消费者使用个人数字录像机(PVR)的诱因，这是一种能够避免广告收视的技术。“消费者越对（广告）不满，PVR就越有可能流行。”她说道。
