A lot of advertisements are telecast during interludes in TV programs, seriously interrupting and influencing people's watching experience. As a result, viewers are left wondering whether they are watching a TV play with ads or ads with a TV play. Hence, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has done the right thing by banning such advertisement breaks during TV plays, says an article in People's Daily. Excerpts:

Viewers are not against a reasonable number of ads. They understand the importance of advertising revenue for TV stations, too. But when a 45-minute TV program has eight to 10 ad breaks, people cannot enjoy the program. TV stations indulging in such a practice give undue preference to ad revenue over social responsibility.

It is said advertisers are like "parents" for TV stations that give them the much-needed financial support, and without large amounts of ad revenue, TV stations cannot afford to pay for popular TV programs.

But this is not correct, because viewers are the real "parents". No advertiser will pay for an ad if only a few viewers watch it.

Even from a utilitarian point of view, too frequent a commercial break can make ads ineffective.

Instead of relying too much on ad revenue from popular programs, TV stations should strengthen their core competitiveness by making more popular programs to attract more viewers. TV stations can increase their revenues by using various profit models. Commercial breaks can bring only short-term gains for TV stations. For success in the long term, they have to improve their core competitiveness.  

(China Daily 12/02/2011 page9)