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Originally Posted by BigV
Whatever. The ads they run are not free...
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Yes, I understood your economic point, I didn't evade it: I just think it's bogus.
The airtime used to run their ads doesn't cost them anything...it occupies bandwidth that otherwise would have been used by (and generated additional revenue for, through improved ratings) the channel originator. It's not displacing a revenue-generating insertion for one of Comcast's advertising customers. The only thing limiting the insertions is
-1)the agreements they have with the channel originators and
-2)how much they can annoy the subscribers before they start showing up at Comcast offices intent on mayhem.
The comment on the ad quality isn't snarkism so much as an aggravating circumstance of the carpet-bombing intensity of the insertions (for Comcast ads) and the bargain-basement prices they must be offering the paid advertisers as indicated by
their production quality.
I'm sure they "would rather have sold the time". But once it goes unsold--which it obviously does a lot--it's like an empty seat on an airliner; might as well put a deadhead in it. Which they do.
So there's no "lost opportunty cost". Do you work for Comcast or something?