I’m finding that I just filter watermarks out nowadays. Like banner ads on websites, I rarely notice them, and (unlike banner ads), they’re actually quite handy when you’re trying to tune a VCR manually, which, you know, I do all the time…
Then I started watching Battlestar Galactica and discovered the Mother of all Watermarks. No matter how dramatic or intense a scene, few things drag you back to reality faster the Sky One (did we mention this is an EXCLUSIVE) logo buzzing around a character's face like some oversize mosquito. Poor old Apollo looks like he's got a band-aid across his nose, and Adama looks like he could be a hologram! At least the DVDs are clean, so we can always take refuge there, but I wonder if it’s just a matter of time before studio watermarks start appearing there as well?
I’ll never complain about Australian network television again. He, he. As if.
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Like banner ads on websites, I rarely notice them, and (unlike banner ads), they’re actually quite handy
ReplyDeleteBanner ads are very handy. They pay for a not-insignificant portion of my salary.
At least the DVDs are clean, so we can always take refuge there, but I wonder if it’s just a matter of time before studio watermarks start appearing there as well?
I don't think so. There are a number of sound commercial reasons for watermarking content on free-to-air or advertising-subsidised television, none of which apply to DVD's.
The most obvious is that when you buy a DVD you are the customer; when you watch SkyOne, Channel 7 or The History Channel you are the product.
Here's a related thought - at the moment you can, if it takes your fancy, pick up one of several DVD's containing four (somewhat randomly) selected episodes of "The Simpsons" for $9.99 at your local Coles.
ReplyDeleteDo you think there would be a market for the identical DVD's, but with scrolling watermark (or picture in picture) commercials superimposed on the action, for an even further reduced price?
Banner ads are very handy. They pay for a not-insignificant portion of my salary.
ReplyDeleteYou cut my sentence short. My point was that banner ads are no help when manually tuning a VCR.
I don't think so.
I don't think so either, but nothing would surprise me anymore.
Do you think there would be a market...
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there would be. I'm sure there are millions of people who couldn't care less about ads and would be keen to pick up a bargain that'll keep the kids occupied for a while at any time of the day.
You cut my sentence short. My point was that banner ads are no help when manually tuning a VCR.
ReplyDeleteGuilty. I thought about (ellipsing? ellipsifying? ellipticating?) adding an ellipse to the end of the quote and I probably should have.
My point was something along the lines of banner ads being much more useless than watermarks, which I can at least see the economic case for.
The only reason banner ads are as common as they are, IMHO, is that there are many people with a very strong interest in hyping them as being more effective than they are so they can sell them; including my employers.
I'm sure there would be. I'm sure there are millions of people who couldn't care less about ads and would be keen to pick up a bargain that'll keep the kids occupied for a while at any time of the day.
So do I. Which means I'm kind of shooting my own argument in the foot here.
But not really - there'll still be the market for the full-season non-watermarked, commercial-free box sets containing every episode with writer, director, actor and janitor's commentary.
I don't find it too hard to believe that film and TV studios would want to have their watermark on everything they produce. Even if it's just one more way to get their brand out there. "Hey, it can't hurt," they'll tell themselves. "The consumers won't even notice because they're already used to all their TV being watermarked. Sure, they'll grumble and complain for a while, write a few letters to the Green Guide, but then they'll get over it, and we'll have brand saturation!"
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm just being pessimistic. I remember the good old days when Pete Smith talking over part of the closing credits was as bad as it got. Which was still pretty bad - just ask me about ol' Pete and Six Feet Under sometime - but nothing like today. Now we get our credits squeezed into a tiny box in the corner, (often out of proportion), with the closing theme all but inaudible; we get animated banner ads and lines of flashing text to helpfully remind us what show we're watching NOW; we get one or more watermarks, jumping televisions and, worst of all, there was one dark week when Molly Meldrum's head kept poking up from the bottom of the screen!
DVD is my last, best hope for peace, so part of me feels like it's inevitably just a matter of time before that's gone too. It seems to be the trend. Maybe I should be out fighting to protect our rainforests, but there are others to do that. Who's going to fight for unmolested closing credits?!
there'll still be the market for the full-season non-watermarked, commercial-free box sets containing every episode with writer, director, actor and janitor's commentary.
ReplyDeleteThere bloody well better be! I, for one, won't be buying anything but. Fine, have your subsidised adware DVD (I never minded Eudora's sponsored mode, but then Eudora was never trying to suspend my disbelief) but don't let that become the only option.
"Hey, it can't hurt," they'll tell themselves. "The consumers won't even notice because they're already used to all their TV being watermarked.
ReplyDeleteThat's probably similar to the thought process Warner Brothers went through when they decided on their Pan and Scan only release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Region 4.
The consumers did notice, and did not buy the R4 edition in the numbers hoped for by WB. I don't know how many of them just decided that they could live without Harry; how many ordered the R1 or R2 widescreen editions from overseas; and how many picked up a pirate widescreen copy in Bali, Malaysia or Hong Kong. Whetever they were doing, they certainly weren't buying the official Australian release in the hoped-for numbers.
The reality is that it can hurt when you piss off your customers; and the sell-through DVD market contains a significant proportion of customers who get pissed off when the integrity of the content is interfered with.
Sure, they'll grumble and complain for a while, write a few letters to the Green Guide, but then they'll get over it, and we'll have brand saturation!"
That's how TV producers think, and they're right to do so. The people writing impotently to the Green Guide literally don't matter to them. The only thing that matters to them - and the only thing that should matter to them - is the advertising revenue and the ratings. (yes, even the ABC - did you know that the DVD of this post is now available at the ABC shop?)
DVD producers, on the other hand, lose customers (ie money) when they change the aspect ratio. They're not going to watermark their films; and even if they do, they certainly won't be watermarking the "SuperBit" versions.
Maybe I'm just being pessimistic.
I think your pessimism is perfectly on target, but only for broadcast (and non-premium pay) TV. I would expect watermarking, in-show ads of all types and messing with credits to become even more ubiquitous and intrusive over the next few years.
Foxtel IQ won't let you skip the ads, but a hacked imported TiVo or custom-built media centre PC will. At the moment, only geeks have these things; but not for much longer. So the ad content has to presented in such a way that people can't zap it.
None of this applies to DVD.
Who's going to fight for unmolested closing credits?!
No-one.
Have you noticed that most US shows now have their closing credits in a plain white font on a black background?
That's because the credits on the actual US broadcast are displayed in a font and background chosen by the network; usually forming a reversed "L" along the right hand side of the screen and the bottom, with the remaining three-quarters of the screen showing network promos (often for the show about to start when the credits end).
Since the credits submitted by the production company will only be used for syndication and/or sell-through releases, they don't bother making them fancy.
There is one banner Ad on a couple of Aussie sites at the moment which has either cockroaches or spiders crawling all over it. It kind freaks me out, so I refresh my screen so it changes... I think that is not what they had in mind for people to do when they see it. Ha! Marketers...
ReplyDeleteAs for water marks... bootom corners I prefer to top, and it must be in the corner unlike the examples shown here.
ReplyDeleteThey also should be clear rather than white.
I also should work in television with statements like that.
Has anyone seen my pants?
As for water marks... bootom corners I prefer to top, and it must be in the corner unlike the examples shown here.
ReplyDeleteWell, it would be in the corner on a 4:3 television, which suggests that SkyOne are showing BSG in Pan & Scan.
<shudder>