What do television watchers do during the commercial breaks? Do they stay seated for the commercials? Do they put their mind into some kind of suspension, stare blankly at the screen, enter some sort of dozing consciousness? Or do they watch, listen and absorb?
Every few years when I turn on the teev to watch a particular event at the Olympic or Commonwealth games I am staggered by the duration and number of commercial breaks. And so I found myself in shock when I flicked to Channel Ten one night last week to watch an hour or so of the Commonwealth Games. I know commercials are the price we pay for commercial television, but, truly, I find it hard to believe that a significant number of people are prepared to pay the price.
I tried watching the ads, and for a while I was interested that they fell so short of generating any interest in the consumer called Jeff Corbett. I mean, advertisers knew I was watching sport, and they had a fair idea which sport; they know that a substantial proportion of viewers were in my age group; they know we have spending power, and they know I'm male, but not once did they push any of my buttons.
Not that I watched for long. The frantic flicking between camera snaps was strangely tiring, and the noise was much more demanding and invasive than that of the program. Finally I hit the mute button and read a mag, restoring the sound when I noticed the games had returned.
Late last week I looked up the free-to-air television industry's code of practice, and first I went to the "loudness in advertisements" section. Commercials, it may interest you, must not be "excessively noisy or strident", and stations "must do everything reasonably possible to ensure that commercials do not sound louder than adjacent programming"! Aah, but the station is excused from these requirements if the person submitting the commercial says it meets the code.
The code stipulates, too, that a station not have more than 15 minutes of commercials in an hour during an evening, no more than an average of 14 minutes in any four evening hours, and no more than an average of 13 minutes in the six hours to midnight. There are quite a few ifs and buts, and few complaints and fewer findings of a breach of the code. The Australian Communications and Media Authority tells me, for example, that in the past year it investigated three complaints of excessive commercial time and dismissed all of them. Not that it matters much. The code is voluntary, breaching it is not an offence, and there are no penalties.
And I suppose people can exercise a choice not to watch. Are you happy with the time out for time in? How do you respond to television's commercial breaks? And do you see the trade of 14 or 15 minutes of commercials an hour a fair trade for a television program?
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