Survivor and Bermuda's broadcasters
One of the most surprising things about last night’s finale of Survivor wasn’t so much that Danni won (though I thought that Steph deserved it more), it was the complete absence of local ads during the two-hour show.
While it was arguably more entertaining to stare at a blank screen for a minute or so during each ad break, it seemed odd that no local companies wanted to take advantage of such prime advertising space. Survivor may be getting old and over-exposed (do we really need two seasons every year?), but its ratings remain strong.
Or were the missing ads a result of a technical glitch on the part of ZBM? If so, it’s no wonder that Rick Richardson, head of the Bermuda Broadcasting Company, was in today’s Royal Gazette voicing his support for the levy that the broadcasters want to charge the cable companies for their channels. He appears to believe that Bermuda's broadcasters are playing their own game of Survivor, and we won’t mind paying to help keep them in the game.
But if ZBM can’t find local advertisers to fill such high-profile slots as the Survivor finale, or can’t ensure that those ads are aired when they should be, should they really be asking us to subsidise their ineptitude?
» CableVision is seeking your feedback on the proposed changes in an online questionnaire available here.
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Look Bda Broadcasting loses about 1/2 a million a year. How much longer can that go on for?
The ad nightmare of staring at blank screens has been going on for years. Check out 60 minutes. I mean it is not a good sign when the most watched Sunday Tv show cannot even find any local support. But maybe it is because these TV dinosaurs don't get it.
They are charging way too much money for a TV ad. Try offering it for the same price as radio and maybe they will get somewhere.
Plus the other issue with the local TV stations is the poor quality of the signal that you get...especially on cable. What is that all about???
I mean everybody now pays attention to the Internet. Most people buy on the Internet. I mean who wants to shop in Bermuda much anymore?
We do for food etc. But most folks now buy their music on line, clothes online, watch movies on cable etc...so it must be a tough sell to find TV ad cash these days....
Hey balnk screens say it all !
Local TV is in trouble. There hasn't been an original thought anywhere for years. As for that crap (oops the P word) that is on cable channel 3, I mean there should be a quality control board that refuses licenses when the standards are so poor.
I have always said that if ZBM cannot find advertisers as they are going down the drain, at least put on some public service TV ads.
Now isn't it amazing that the Govt want a TV station? wow...what a waste of Tax Payer Dollars. No one else in TV land in Bermuda is making one red cent...but yet the buffoons running this country wanna have a TV station.
Hey....thank god for Cable WOW and DVD's....
Posted by Tony B on 12.12.05 at 11:40
Perhaps there's a good reason the advertisers stay away - I have seen mention of boycotting of BBC by sponsors because of certain practices etc...looks like the calls for boycotts are being heard. There'sno way we should pay for something that has been and is typically free via antenna...they need to learn how to run a business or hire someone who does...
Posted by Nicolette on 12.12.05 at 13:45
What practices are the inspiration for a boycott?
Posted by silencedogood on 12.12.05 at 13:49
No Nic I do not believe it is anything as sinister as a boycott...
Look advertising has changed.....Many people know that radio in Bermuda is just about all you need to reach the locals....
everything else is either Internet or Newspaper.
Local TV really only has a news following...I used to watch local TV but I refuse now as the picture is so bad most of the time. One would think that in this day and age a clean signal would be a no brainer ? Well you tell me what ya think of TV 7 and 9 on cable ?
I hear it is better on WOW but they have a smaller % of the market...
Now with Windows Media PC's coming into fashion and TEVO who needs deal with TV like we did in the days where there were no VHS...DVD....Cable etc..etc
Bermuda TV has to totally come up with a reason why anyone should watch it. They should also stop this insane $ 200 a TV spot fee.....when you can get your message across for next to nothing on radio.....
Now that Digital Video is such a breeze...these guys should offer rates similar to radio if they want to see the customers come back...
But isn't it amazing they don't even try and save face and let the screens go blank if there are no local ads to run....At least they could offer the Govt free spots to show what a farce the Senate and Parliament sessions are instead of us taxpayers having to be hosed because P wants his on TV station......
Now back to HBO on cable :)
Posted by Tony B on 12.12.05 at 14:27
Tony B,
The government station will only be an implementation of a policy established by the UBP.
I was wondering, seeing as you have so many ideas for making Bermuda a better place for tourism, etc. and the fact that loathe this government and its policies so greatly, why not put your money where your mouth is and offer yourself as a representative of the people in the next election? Layout out exactly what you propsoe should be done and how you intend to implement it. This way you, as a Member of Parliament (assuming your are elected) have to be heard.
Posted by Guilden M. Gilbert, Jr. on 12.12.05 at 14:37
CableVision is seeking your feedback on the proposed changes in an online questionnaire available here.
Posted by Phil on 12.12.05 at 14:37
First off, YES! We DO need Two seasons of Survivor a year! Good Lord, man... don't let my wife hear you talking like this!
Second, What the hell was up with Danni's lips in the reunion?
Third, TB's got it right about the prices. It amazes me that they don't lower them. They'd rather make NO money than less money. Makes sense to me!
Fourth, speaking of quality control, shouldn't there be some quality control on the ads themselves? I understand that the marketing budgets aren't in the gajillions here, like they are in the states, but some of these ads look like they were done with a $200 handicam and a freeware editor! And the acting... yowza. Real Oscar-winning performances there.
Flirt branding has done a few ads here that are top-of-the-line, so I know it is possible. Why can't we seem to get anything of even halfway decent quality from anywhere else?
Why do 99% of our local ads pale in comparison to the "Dine Like A Swine For $8.99" (©2¢) cable access ones you see elsewhere?
If the BBC and VSB want to start making the money, they really should try to step up to the wicket and get their shit together.
It really sucks that "That looked really good... for Bermuda" is a compliment here, y'know?
Upgrade the signal to something approaching decent, lower the prices for ad spots, demand quality from ads. These aren't hard to implement, surely.
Posted by Uncle Elvis on 12.12.05 at 14:43
Oh...whilst we are at it...Can someone please remove that DISTORTED badly recorded Bootsie car safety seat commercial before my TV speakers die from the over boosted signal ? Here is a classic example of how bad and ad can be...The production audio ruins a good ad here.
Yes ELVIS to FLIRT Branding....yer boy is good....Talented and doesn't let shite production out of his office !
Posted by Tony B on 12.12.05 at 14:55
"Oh...whilst we are at it...Can someone please remove that DISTORTED badly recorded Bootsie car safety seat commercial before my TV speakers die from the over boosted signal ? Here is a classic example of how bad and ad can be...The production audio ruins a good ad here.
Yes ELVIS to FLIRT Branding....yer boy is good....Talented and doesn't let shite production out of his office !"
Thanks for wrecking my afternoon, Tony: I was having a perfectly nice day and then you had to bring up that godawful advert; an advert that makes me want to claw out my eyeballs whenever it comes on. The merest thought of it brings me out in hives and gnaws away at my will to live - that advert tears through the very fabric of space and time with the sheer, overpowering force of its mediocrity. Call me Mr. Overeaction, but I sincerely believe that everyone involved in the production of that advert should be dragged out into the street and shot.
As you were....
Posted by loki on 12.12.05 at 15:13
Loki... I needed a good laff...thanks
Posted by Tony B on 12.12.05 at 15:18
Stay on topic, please. If you want to discuss the proposed new Government channel please do so here.
Posted by Phil on 12.12.05 at 15:58
oops....sometimes it is so hard to do that...when the Govt are now about to force us to pay for crap..! Heck P and his boys sure know how to dish that up (crap) on a daily basis !
No I wont pay for it (local TV)....it should remain free...I'll listen to news on the radio...to keep my serenity destabilized....who needs to watch it? ha ha
COMPROMISE.......
I tell ya what...if we do have to pay for it...then make it AD FREE....why suffer 2 types of bad programming ?
Posted by Tony B on 12.12.05 at 16:40
Actually I enjoy watching the ZBM news. It's so bad it's good! Listening to Gary Moreno's strangled English accent and his insistence on putting the emPHasis on the wrong syllABLES is very entertaining.
Posted by JJ on 12.12.05 at 16:49
Forcing the Cable companies, and therefore US, pay for free channels is wrong. Come on. It'd be a joke if they weren't serious. The way I see it, if local companies can't sell ad slots, they need to either improve their product, rethink their prices or shut the hell down. Government forcing private companies to pay OTHER private companies, after forcing them to carry their product? Ridiculous.
Blank screens are NOT acceptable.
Posted by Uncle Elvis on 13.12.05 at 00:49
Situation is somewhat different, but there are a number of jurisdictions that charge for airwave broadcasts - the UK and the TV Licence (and those strange contraptions the "TV Police" use!!). When I lived in the UK I was shocked that you had to have a licence to receive broadcasts, when in Bermuda and the US it was free. I know the BBC is a quasi government entity, and the licence pays (or at least contributes) for its costs and expenses, so the situation is different from ZBM, ZFB & VSB, but the concept is not that foreign.
Posted by Pitts Bay on 13.12.05 at 08:33
Simple solution - just have the cable companies package the local channels completely seperate from all other programming - like movie channels... then people that really want to have them can pay and the rest of us don't have to. I don't watch those channels anyway.
I myself pay for the most basic of basic cable, and will be truly pissed off if they just raise my rate and bundle that crap the way they do now.
Posted by Somers on 13.12.05 at 08:44
What is shown buy this latest 'pay for local tv' debaucle, is that this government is impotent when it comes to good choices for Bermuda. The local companies are in business and should perform like a business. Blank screens and poor programming is a result of bad business - therefore fire the CEO (with no large redundancy cheques) and put some fresh (no pun intended) talent in with fresh ideas and modern equipment - there are so many resourses available in the global market for entertainment and media. wow me.
Posted by b,w&p?? on 13.12.05 at 09:15
"some of these ads look like they were done with a $200 handicam"
Actually, a $200 handycam would be better than most of the local programming. God knows what they are using.
Posted by Chris Broadhurst on 13.12.05 at 09:18
Uncle Elvis wrote: "Forcing the Cable companies, and therefore US, pay for free channels is wrong. Come on. It'd be a joke if they weren't serious."
Yeah it would be kinda like paying for Social Insurance as well as pension and knowing there is a good chance you probably won't see your social insurance contributions in 40 years time. But you still have to pay them anyways.
I think that Cablevision should tell government to go to hell...
Posted by Full Fullish on 13.12.05 at 09:43
"They should also stop this insane $ 200 a TV spot fee.....when you can get your message across for next to nothing on radio....." TB
Is it really only $200 per TV spot? If so then anyone not advertising during Survivor and prime time programming is really missing the boat. That price seems very cheap. A combination of product ads, fluff pieces, and community service ads should be easy to sell. Maybe ZBM just needs a better sales team.
Posted by SmokingGun on 13.12.05 at 13:05