Analyse the text about why some people keep flipping through TV channels without focusing on any particular show, and how advertising on television works. Then, do the exercises below.

Marcin Legeżyński Flipping Through Channels

Even though the contemporary media offer nearly unlimited options of entertainment, the complaint that “there’s nothing to watch” is ever so common.  Recent studies suggest that the average person spends more than a year of their life channel surfingchannel surfing [channel surf]channel surfing while hunting for a showhunting for a show [hunt for a show]hunting for a show. A report on the habits of adult American television viewerstelevision viewers [television viewer]television viewers shows that, while most people spend a little more than two hours a day watching TV, a good chunk of that timechunk of that timechunk of that time is actually used to flip through channelsflip through channelsflip through channels. But why do people channel surf?

Viewers often do that when they aren’t sure what they want to watch, so they flip through the channels until they find something they are interested in. Unsurprisingly, the more channels are available, the harder it is to make a choice. Contemporary cable televisioncable televisioncable television systems featurefeature (verb)feature hundreds of them and deciding on a particular programme to watch can be a challenge.

Commercial breakscommercial breaks [commercial break]Commercial breaks are another reason for not staying on a particular channel for longer. Free to viewfree to viewFree to view TV channels receive the majority of their revenue from commercialsrevenue from commercialsrevenue from commercials and their frequencyfrequencyfrequency can sometimes be overwhelming. Still, financial contributions from advertisersfinancial contributions from advertisers [financial contribution from advertisers]financial contributions from advertisers are important to broadcastersbroadcasters [broadcaster]broadcasters. It isn't uncommon for a popular film or TV show broadcast in viewer prime timeprime timeprime time to be interrupted by commercials three or four times.

In the U.S., a typical 30‑minute block of time includes 22 minutes of actual programming and eight minutes of advertisements. In European countries, TV commercials appear in longer but less frequent commercial breaks. Despite the law allowing for only 12 minutes of adverts per one hour of broadcasting timebroadcasting timebroadcasting time, some viewers are notorious fornotorious fornotorious for switching to a different show as soon as commercials appear and not returning to the originally chosen film or programme.

With commercials playing such an important role in creating financial gainsfinancial gains [financial gain]financial gains by TV channels, it is necessary to establish a channel’s viewershipviewershipviewership at a given time. The owners can estimateestimate (verb)estimate prices of air timeair timeair time sold to advertising agenciesadvertising agencies [advertising agency]advertising agencies by knowing approximately how many viewers are watching the channel during a moment in time. To achieve this, independent rating systemsrating systems [rating system]rating systems are used. They measure audience viewership of a television programme and provide a way to determine how popular a show is.

Considering the nuisance of frequent TV commercial breaks, is it not better to take advantage of numerous radio stations available through cable networks and take a rest from messages encouraging us to buy something? Wouldn’t it be nice to listen to music or interesting radio programmes and so avoid the interruptions of obtrusive advertisersobtrusive advertisers [obtrusive advertiser]obtrusive advertisers? Sadly, that isn’t an option. Radio stations sell nearly as much advertising time as TV channels, with the average station running approximately nine minutes of ads per hour. No escape from ads there!

While channel surfing can be irritating to other viewers who may want to keep watching a show or listening to a programme rather than switch to another one, there are always other possibilities than spending hours in front of a TV. Going out for a walk, seeing friends or reading a book are possible alternatives which can be more enjoyable and are certainly healthier than turning into a couch potatocouch potatocouch potato!

1 Źródło: Marcin Legeżyński, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.