I have a pet peeve - tv popups

Whitewolf,

You hit a good one here.  Granted, in comparison to world problems, this is bupkus, but it is irritating.  I really don't mind the shadow box station logo or the temporary pop up that tells you what you're watching now & what's next.  But the rest is ridiculous.

News, local & national has a runner with just about everything but the kitchen sink.  It's so bad that when a news story comes on stating the location of the story or who is speaking, it's blocked by the pop up/bug/crawler.

Sports.  Even WGN, when broadcasting my beloved CUBS, has el crappola on the bottom of the screen, in addition to the status of the game on top & the action is squeazed & looks goofy, even when I'm not enjoying my favorite adult libation.

The only reason which I can attribute this to is the fact that in recent years, technology has pandered to the people who want instant gratification, instant facts, up to date all the time.  The down side is a retention/comprehension level going down the crapper.  Maybe that's why the number of people who read a book has gone down the crapper.  They want more information more often, all the time, but don't have enough comprehension to formulate a thoughtful opinion on anything.  And, as we have seen, the information producers have been feeding this to the masses.

Sadly, I don't think anything will be done about this.  Money, after all, is the end goal. JATFUR.

Doubt is the first step towards knowlege.  Acquiring knowlege is the next step to a higher intellect.

RichK

Whitewolf, You are definitely not alone in being aggravated by what the various networks are doing. I have reached a point where television viewing is no longer pleasurable. The pop up ads are truly distracting, the number of commercial breaks in a show is out of hand. ABC is the worst offender in that regard. I find to avoid these intrusions and be able to comprehend an entire story line, I am better off time shifting. I record a show one night and then watch it another, thereby skipping through the commercials. There is no reason that ABC must stop a prgram every 5 - 6 minutes to have some lunatic raving about a completely useless product. I understand programs are paid for by advertisers but the frequency by which a show is interrupted only makes me turn against the product being hawked. I have found lately, that shows creeated on the cable networks not only have far fewer commercial breaks but are a few minutes longer in content and overall, higher in quality. (43 minutes versus 39 for the Big Three)

I have just gone over the new Fall Preview TV Guide and there MIGHT be two new shows I will check out. However, shows on cable are much better such as Rescue Me, The Closer, Kyle XY and the new show called Damages. Oh, and I can't leave out Monk and Psych. What these shows have going for them is a shorter season meaning less filler than a regular 22 week season and much higher standards in writing. Unfortunately, they also have the lousy pop up ads. I would love to see the FCC rule against this awful practice but I don't think they really have any power in the face of the mega billions of dollars the networks represent. The FCC is just another toothless watchdog group which hasn't done anything significant in decades.

In the end, the best way to view shows any more would be to practice patience and wait for the DVD set to be released and watch it as you will. I do this with Showtime series, the latest being Dexter, which I loved. I realize Showtime doesn't have commercial breaks but I can't get it with my cable set up and really, I can wait.

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go."
Oscar Wilde