# Directv can insert local commercials into national channels



## DJ Rob (Jul 24, 2003)

I noticed on CNN HD this week that Directv is able to insert local commercials for retailers here in the Denver area during some breaks. I'm not sure if this is a test or something that's been happening for a while that I just never noticed. I wonder if they are doing this via spotbeams or if there's some kind of new tech happening with our DVRs. It was on my HR24-100 running the latest CE with the HDGUI.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

May be CE include that last time, but the tests are ongoing last week or more - ask Doctor J and gct for historical data of such tests.


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

I believe a while back they said they where going to start pushing local commercials to dvrs that could be inserted into commercial breaks like cable companies do to increase their advertising dollars. It's only 25 channels in 25 markets right now as they test it out, more latter.


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## Avder (Feb 6, 2010)

Man, I am not looking forward to when this goes nationwide. One of the best things about DirecTV in this town is that if I have to watch a commercial, it's not a local commercial from Fargo. Our local commercials SUCK. They are so poorly produced they look like they were made with an old VHS camcorder and mspaint graphics. And they all use the same voiceover guy. Just makes me wanna tear my hair out when I cant fast forward past those pieces of crap. Thank god the only time that happens is during live sports.


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## RobertE (Jun 10, 2006)

They have been doing that for years.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

Avder said:


> Man, I am not looking forward to when this goes nationwide. One of the best things about DirecTV in this town is that if I have to watch a commercial, it's not a local commercial from Fargo. Our local commercials SUCK. They are so poorly produced they look like they were made with an old VHS camcorder and mspaint graphics. And they all use the same voiceover guy. Just makes me wanna tear my hair out when I cant fast forward past those pieces of crap. Thank god the only time that happens is during live sports.


Geez, they're just commercials. I'd hate to see how you feel about serious things.


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## I WANT MORE (Oct 3, 2006)

Avder said:


> Man, I am not looking forward to when this goes nationwide. One of the best things about DirecTV in this town is that if I have to watch a commercial, it's not a local commercial from Fargo. Our local commercials SUCK. They are so poorly produced they look like they were made with an old VHS camcorder and mspaint graphics. And they all use the same voiceover guy. Just makes me wanna tear my hair out when I cant fast forward past those pieces of crap. Thank god the only time that happens is during live sports.


Beats the Hell out of Deon Sanders over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over.


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

Who cares? The major reason I have DVR's is to skip commercials.

Now, if they somehow disable the SKIP/SLIP button during certain commercials it will be bye-bye DirecTV hello DISH!!


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## Sward81333 (Mar 29, 2011)

I fear the unskippable commercials on your DVR are just around the corner. Just as when you watch a show online, there are commercials you cannot escape. And if DirecTV starts, Dish and your local cable companies will soon follow. This will be a goldmine for the suppliers and the advertisers. :nono:


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## Avder (Feb 6, 2010)

Sward81333 said:


> I fear the unskippable commercials on your DVR are just around the corner. Just as when you watch a show online, there are commercials you cannot escape. And if DirecTV starts, Dish and your local cable companies will soon follow. This will be a goldmine for the suppliers and the advertisers. :nono:


Just means people who hate commercials will go back to other means of content delivery that are of questionable legality.

Either that or find a way to hack the DVR to restore functionality.


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

DJ Rob said:


> I noticed on CNN HD this week that Directv is able to insert local commercials for retailers here in the Denver area during some breaks.





RobertE said:


> They have been doing that for years.


I know they've been inserting their commercials on national channels for years, but this sounds different since he said it was for local Denver retailers.

DIRECTV has said they are going to start doing local ad insertaion in the 4th quarter on 25 channels in 25 markets with HD DVR's. Then in 2012 expand to 50 channels in 50 markets and also enable SD DVR's for that capability. As someone mentioned, doesn't bother me as long as I'm still able to skip through them.


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## Avder (Feb 6, 2010)

RAD said:


> I know they've been inserting their commercials on national channels for years, but this sounds different since he said it was for local Denver retailers.
> 
> DIRECTV has said they are going to start doing local ad insertaion in the 4th quarter on 25 channels in 25 markets with HD DVR's. Then in 2012 expand to 50 channels in 50 markets and also enable SD DVR's for that capability. As someone mentioned, doesn't bother me as long as I'm still able to skip through them.


Well, the thing is, every cable channel allocates a few slots for cable providers to slip in local ads. Since everything is national with DirecTV, they cant really do that, and so we get DirecTV ads over and over and over.


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

Avder said:


> Well, the thing is, every cable channel allocates a few slots for cable providers to slip in local ads. Since everything is national with DirecTV, they cant really do that, and so we get DirecTV ads over and over and over.


But DIRECTV has said they will start doing exactly that. They will push the local ads into their reserved space on the DVR's hard drive and then signal the box when and which ad should be played. Yes, I agree that they can't do that today but they will start by the end of the year.


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## HoTat2 (Nov 16, 2005)

RAD said:


> But DIRECTV has said they will start doing exactly that. They will push the local ads into their reserved space on the DVR's hard drive and then signal the box when and which ad should be played. Yes, I agree that they can't do that today but they will start by the end of the year.


My assumption would be that these local commercial spot's files are simply copied over from the HDD's reserved space into the user's space live buffer or recording stream at the appropriate times as the program is being received. Otherwise I don't see how FF, REW, or other trick play would not be affected by this.


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## tonyd79 (Jul 24, 2006)

Avder said:


> Man, I am not looking forward to when this goes nationwide. One of the best things about DirecTV in this town is that if I have to watch a commercial, it's not a local commercial from Fargo. Our local commercials SUCK. They are so poorly produced they look like they were made with an old VHS camcorder and mspaint graphics. And they all use the same voiceover guy. Just makes me wanna tear my hair out when I cant fast forward past those pieces of crap. Thank god the only time that happens is during live sports.


I get a kick out of local cheesy commercials. Love listening to college sports from places like Iowa on XM and hear the local corn feed commercials.

Commercials around here are too slick. Except for the semi-cheesy Jack Says Yes! commercials.

Local commercials beats the 500th time I have seen the same DirecTV commercial.


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## JoeTheDragon (Jul 21, 2008)

Avder said:


> Well, the thing is, every cable channel allocates a few slots for cable providers to slip in local ads. Since everything is national with DirecTV, they cant really do that, and so we get DirecTV ads over and over and over.


The RSN channels do have local ad's + spots that Directv fills in.


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## mreposter (Jul 29, 2006)

I WANT MORE said:


> Beats the Hell out of Deon Sanders over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over.


Interrupted only by ads for mesothelioma lawsuits and gold coins...


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## espnjason (Sep 30, 2008)

Just a question out of curiosity.

Should the dvr local ad concept get full deployment, would that open the door to eliminating blackouts on premium sports packages?

I ask this because I understand that most blackouts are because of local adverts, which is usually the case where one would watch the local RSN. Say for example, I'm in L.A. and have MLB EI, and I want to watch the Angels vs. Yankees on the YES Network feed but with L.A. based local ads as conceived on the D* DVR. Would that become a suddenly new possibility?


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## HoTat2 (Nov 16, 2005)

espnjason said:


> Just a question out of curiosity.
> 
> Should the dvr local ad concept get full deployment, would that open the door to eliminating blackouts on premium sports packages?
> 
> I ask this because I understand that most blackouts are because of local adverts, which is usually the case where one would watch the local RSN. Say for example, I'm in L.A. and have MLB EI, and I want to watch the Angels vs. Yankees on the YES Network feed but with L.A. based local ads as conceived on the D* DVR. Would that become a suddenly new possibility?


I don't think the inability to broadcast local advertisements are the cause of blackout restrictions, but that of trying to protect ticket sales at the home gate or contractual rights to a broadcast by other entities.


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## awblackmon (May 20, 2009)

Years back I was a C-band subscriber. When I left that technology and went with Directv, the first thing I noticed was the ads were very much NOT the same as what I had seen before. I didn't think that this happened overnight, but was probably going on for some time. I just wasn't seeing it until I changed providers. So if the ads are different with provider choice, seeing a local ad on cable channels would not surprise me one bit.


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## bwaldron (Oct 24, 2005)

Avder said:


> One of the best things about DirecTV in this town is that if I have to watch a commercial, it's not a local commercial from Fargo.


I'd prefer VHS-quality local ads rather than the Disney-produced public service spots telling me to reduce my energy usage that DirecTV inserts multiple times into games I'm watching.


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## DJ Rob (Jul 24, 2003)

I'm seeing that you cannot skip these ads with the 30skip but can with the fast forward function... not good if this is how it's going to be.


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## tonyd79 (Jul 24, 2006)

"HoTat2" said:


> I don't think the inability to broadcast local advertisements are the cause of blackout restrictions, but that of trying to protect ticket sales at the home gate or contractual rights to a broadcast by other entities.


Mostly contractual rights if the channel showing the game. The ad revenue for these ads goes to directv not to the local rsn or OTA channel.


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## mpar1 (Mar 20, 2008)

I love missing the local campaign ads and automobile dealer ads.


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## Jive Turkey (Sep 6, 2011)

I have to say that I fully understand DirecTV's desire to capitalize on local commercials, but this makes me a little nervous. Recording commercials to insert into other shows that are already being recorded (either because of the "record" button or DVR buffer) just sounds like something destined to be riddled with goof-ups causing recording errors and flushed buffers.


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

Jive Turkey said:


> I have to say that I fully understand DirecTV's desire to capitalize on local commercials, but this makes me a little nervous. Recording commercials to insert into other shows that are already being recorded (either because of the "record" button or DVR buffer) just sounds like something destined to be riddled with goof-ups causing recording errors and flushed buffers.


An unknown is would these local commercials actually be recorded into a current recording from the pre-pushed ad or would the recording just have a data point that says to go play the local commecial from the harddrive? I would think if it's just pointing to something then that might be more stable.


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## Gloria_Chavez (Aug 11, 2008)

I recall reading the Replay TV offering document, back in 1999, in which the company planned to send commercials to the DVR, where they would be stored and aired at the appropriate time. For example, Ford would have 5 versions of spots in the DVR. During an NFL game, one family may see a Tahoe spots, while another one for a Taurus, depending on your demographic profile.


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## SherSlick (Feb 1, 2011)

Sward81333 said:


> I fear the unskippable commercials on your DVR are just around the corner. Just as when you watch a show online, there are commercials you cannot escape. And if DirecTV starts, Dish and your local cable companies will soon follow. This will be a goldmine for the suppliers and the advertisers. :nono:


This is the case with a few commercials, can fast forward but cannot skip/slip.


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## Jeremy W (Jun 19, 2006)

Gloria_Chavez said:


> For example, Ford would have 5 versions of spots in the DVR. During an NFL game, one family may see a Tahoe spots, while another one for a Taurus, depending on your demographic profile.


I know Ford had some issues back in the day, but I don't think they'd be advertising the Tahoe.


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## ACR_Ted (May 11, 2010)

SherSlick said:


> This is the case with a few commercials, can fast forward but cannot skip/slip.


I haven't found any commercials like that (yet!) but guaranteed that if D* disables the skip ahead feature I will cancel! I am close to that point anyways with all of the obnoxious screen clutter that seems to be everywhere these days 

I don't watch nearly as much TV as I used to account too many commercials and clutter...

Ted


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## bikenski (May 25, 2010)

These unskippable ads are becoming annoying in a big hurry. The worst are DirecTV's own ads for a service I already subscribe to, and have already seen countless times.

The goal may be to convince me to spend more money with DirecTV, but it's having the opposite effect. I'll give them another month or so to "correct" this issue before voting with my wallet.


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## DJ Rob (Jul 24, 2003)

Yeah, these commercials are a big mistake on Directv's part. My wife noticed it tonight and thought it was our DVR malfunctioning since she couldn't skip forward. When I told her it is a "feature", she suggested we look into Comcast or Dish.


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## ACR_Ted (May 11, 2010)

bikenski said:


> These unskippable ads are becoming annoying in a big hurry. The worst are DirecTV's own ads for a service I already subscribe to, and have already seen countless times.
> 
> The goal may be to convince me to spend more money with DirecTV, but it's having the opposite effect. I'll give them another month or so to "correct" this issue before voting with my wallet.


Which programs/shows have these unskippable ads? I guess I've been 'lucky' so far in that I have not found one of them! But if they start showing up in the programs I watch, it is goodbye DTV. And if DTV has them, you know it will soon spread to the cable companies (Cox around here) and Dish as well. Thats when I will just give up most TV and use an outside antenna for what little I would still want to see.

Between unskippable commercials and the large amount of obnoxious screen clutter, logos and bugs why even bother? There are plenty of other things to do....

At least I never see any ads whatsoever when surfing the internet...Firefox and Ad Block Plus along with NoScript take care of that issue 

Ted


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## bikenski (May 25, 2010)

ACR_Ted said:


> Which programs/shows have these unskippable ads? I guess I've been 'lucky' so far in that I have not found one of them!


I believe at this point the insertion of local ads is only deployed in a few markets, which is why you haven't been hit with them yet. The majority of complaints I've seen are coming from Colorado, but there may be other areas subjected to this also.

You'll know it when it happens because you'll be hitting the skip button through ads, and all of a sudden it stops functioning, and the ad starts playing. The manual FF button still works, but not the 30 second skip. Very annoying.


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

On a recent financial call they said 25 markets with 25 channels sometime during the fourth quarter this year with expaning to 50 markets and 50 channels in first quarter 2012.


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## espnjason (Sep 30, 2008)

bikenski said:


> You'll know it when it happens because you'll be hitting the skip button through ads, and all of a sudden it stops functioning, and the ad starts playing. The manual FF button still works, but not the 30 second skip. Very annoying.


I would only be ticked if I can't hit the mute button, if it gets to a point where I have to pay attention then it would be a problem for me.


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## HoTat2 (Nov 16, 2005)

ACR_Ted said:


> ... But if they start showing up in the programs I watch, it is goodbye DTV. *And if DTV has them, you know it will soon spread to the cable companies (Cox around here) *and Dish as well. Thats when I will just give up most TV and use an outside antenna for what little I would still want to see.
> ... Ted


Just to note, regarding the cable companies, you have it backwards. By their very nature as regional MSO providers, cable inherently has this ability and does local commercial insertion. In fact they have been doing it for years.

DIRECTV as a national broadcaster now is attempting to gain this ability at the local level to try and tap into this market for additional revenue.


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## Jeremy W (Jun 19, 2006)

HoTat2 said:


> Just to note, regarding the cable companies, you have it backwards. By their very nature as regional MSO providers, cable inherently has this ability and does local commercial insertion. In fact they have been doing it for years.


I think he's talking about making the ads unskippable, not the simple insertion capability.


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## Wisegoat (Aug 17, 2006)

espnjason said:


> I would only be ticked if I can't hit the mute button, if it gets to a point where I have to pay attention then it would be a problem for me.


Then the world of Max Headroom will have come to life! In that world, it was illegal to turn your TV off, but they were still able to mute them, as that legislation did not get enough votes to pass.

The scary thing is that the world of Max Headroom is starting to look a lot like our own.


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## ACR_Ted (May 11, 2010)

Jeremy W said:


> I think he's talking about making the ads unskippable, not the simple insertion capability.


Exactly right Jeremy....even the cable system I had 30+ years ago could insert local commercials.

Ted


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## Jeremy W (Jun 19, 2006)

ACR_Ted said:


> Exactly right Jeremy....even the cable system I had 30+ years ago could insert local commercials.


It's a little more difficult for cable companies to make their commercials unskippable, since they're simply inserted into the signal instead of being played out by the local STB. Although it's certainly possible, and I'm sure we'll see this "feature" expanding to cable, and eventually to most commercials.


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## HoTat2 (Nov 16, 2005)

Jeremy W said:


> I think he's talking about making the ads unskippable, not the simple insertion capability.





ACR_Ted said:


> Exactly right Jeremy....even the cable system I had 30+ years ago could insert local commercials.
> 
> Ted


Oh OK ... ,

Thanks, my bad then ...


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## Tom Robertson (Nov 15, 2005)

I suspect you all are right that there is a problem that DIRECTV might need to look into. I expect they were meant to be skippable but maybe something was tagged incorrectly or maybe a bug in the skip logic.

If it is in the tagging, hopefully they can fix it in a few days. If a coding bug... that might take a little longer. 

I don't think this is how DIRECTV wanted things to go.

Cheers,
Tom


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

The 'bug' easily did pass a test of its SW developer, not telling about first QA ? Sweet dreams...

It's a feature to control us !


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## Jeremy W (Jun 19, 2006)

Tom Robertson said:


> I don't think this is how DIRECTV wanted things to go.


I don't know, the voices in my head (and I know they're actually in my head, because my tinfoil hat keeps out any mind control efforts) say that if the ads are not skippable, DirecTV could charge more for them.


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## ACR_Ted (May 11, 2010)

Tom Robertson said:


> I suspect you all are right that there is a problem that DIRECTV might need to look into. I expect they were meant to be skippable but maybe something was tagged incorrectly or maybe a bug in the skip logic.
> 
> If it is in the tagging, hopefully they can fix it in a few days. If a coding bug... that might take a little longer.
> 
> ...


Has anyone in the affected areas called DTV to find out just what is going on and whether or not the disabling of the skip function is deliberate?

If it is done on purpose I would imagine that a lot of us would cancel service...I know I certainly would do so! I can get 50+ channels off air (albeit about 2/3 of them are religious, Spanish and/or home shopping) so that would be good enough for me. I've already gotten to the point where I only watch TV once or twice a week now...

Ted


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## bill875 (Jun 15, 2010)

I DVR'd the Weird Al Yankovic Special on Comedy Central HD tonight (10/1). During the ad breaks I was surprised to see Hardee's ads on a National channel, then I saw a commercial for a local Ear/Nose/Throat doctor in Charlotte, NC which was surprising as I knew I was not watching any of my local Charlotte channels. So that brought me to Google "DirecTV inserting Local ads" which brought me to this thread. I have no problem with local ads if I don't have to see DirecTV, Mesothelioma or Coin ads. Glad to know I'm not crazy and that this is an actual initiative on DirecTV's part.


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## Jeremy W (Jun 19, 2006)

bill875 said:


> I have no problem with local ads if I don't have to see DirecTV, Mesothelioma or Coin ads.


I don't think anyone really has a problem with the ads themselves. It's just the fact that they're unskippable.


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## Funk Doctor (Jan 11, 2009)

Started seeing these local ads on national channels here in NYC. I can't recall exactly which channels they were on, but I think it was FX, Bravo and maybe Discovery.


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## kevinwmsn (Aug 19, 2006)

Jeremy W said:


> I don't think anyone really has a problem with the ads themselves. It's just the fact that they're unskippable.


+1. Luckily they haven't made it my way yet, but if they make commercials unskippable, I may have to resort to having a bunch of recievers and let the pc flag the commercials for me.


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## ChrisPC (Jun 17, 2003)

I noticed the ads here in TN a few weeks ago, and didn't think they were local at first. I saw one ad at the gym and thought they had switched to Comcast, but I didn't see those stupid anti-D* and anti-Uverse ads. All the ads I saw were regional, not local. One day, I saw an ad for a local ambulance chaser and realized D* was inserting them somehow. They definitely have a lower resolution than the other ads.


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## JoeTheDragon (Jul 21, 2008)

ChrisPC said:


> I noticed the ads here in TN a few weeks ago, and didn't think they were local at first. I saw one ad at the gym and thought they had switched to Comcast, but I didn't see those stupid anti-D* and anti-Uverse ads. All the ads I saw were regional, not local. One day, I saw an ad for a local ambulance chaser and realized D* was inserting them somehow. They definitely have a lower resolution than the other ads.


was it on a RSN channel? they have local ad's and D* can if wanted feed in local ad's on RSN channels at there up link center.


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## jamieh1 (May 1, 2003)

Watching History HD and saw some local ads for the Ral/Durham Market, also saw some on ESPN HD. Also the resolution changes for some ads.


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## Richierich (Jan 10, 2008)

I WANT MORE said:


> Beats the Hell out of Deon Sanders over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over over and over and over.


How Do You REALLY Feel About The Deion Sanders Commercial???

This is your Psychiatrist Speaking. Can you Hear??? :lol:


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