DSTV ads sound volume

Electronic petitions to Multichoice have failed in the past
 
I'm not a customer and I wont be untill they give more choice in what I want to watch.
When unlimited downloads come thru I'll subscribe to overseas channels that I want to watch. There is no choice in Multi Choice.
 
This is very irritating, but I fight back by changing channels as soon as ads start so that there AMPS(or whatever it is that counts how many people are watching) rating goes down by 1 i.e. me. Whenever I think something is crud I change channels and surf till the ads are finished. Why do they advertise themselves by the way? Surely if you are watching it already why would you want to get connected again. There marketing is beyond my humble brain.
 
billybobwoolmer said:
Why do they advertise themselves by the way? Surely if you are watching it already why would you want to get connected again. There marketing is beyond my humble brain.
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You're not alone in that thinking...
 
This is was the ASA says:

I have perused the file on this matter, and hope that I can shed some light on why we can not proceed with the matter.

The ASA is a self regulatory industry body that is mandated to investigate the content of specific advertisements and to apply the rules of our Code to that investigation. Your complaint unfortunately relates to a general problem with the volume of the advertising on DSTV. As much as we may agree with you (and I must say that this volume issue is something that I personally also find very irritating on all channels!) we are simply not legally allowed to extend the mandate that the industry has given us.

I see that Michelle has already explained to you that the louder volume is often caused by the superior technology used in the advertisements as opposed to the programmes, and is not a result of a deliberate strategy by DSTV. However, you may wish to ask the channel itself for more information on this issue.

You may also be interested to know that we have not had a huge number of complaints about this - probably about 3 in the last two years. However, even if we were inundated with complaints, it would not change the fact that we do not have jurisdiction to consider the matter.

I was very interested to read that there is a UK decision, and would really like it if you could give me the reference so that I can source a copy of that decision myself. (As the UK considers 14 000 complaints a year, we cannot keep up to date with every one of their decisions as I'm sure you can appreciate!) As far as I was aware, the UK jurisdiction is exactly the same as ours, and it would be very interesting to see how they could have made a decision like that.

Nonetheless, and regardless of what the UK position is, the ASA in South Africa is not legally able to pursue your complaint. I hope that you appreciate that we are not trying to be obstructive or shirk our duties, but we have a specific jurisdiction from which we can not deviate.

I hope that I have shed some light on this issue, and wish you luck with any queries that you may address to the channels themselves.

Yours sincerely
Gail Schimmel
Senior Consultant: Dispute Resolution
ASA
 
swordfish1 said:
so how do we do that? Can we setup electronic petition? And who do we send it to?
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No Matter what you guys try and do it won't work. I am studying Graphic Design/Adevertising and this high volume tactic is simply used to get your attention. On SABC 1,2,3 the ads are also louder. On DSTV the jump in volume does seem higher. I don't notice it that much because both my TV and Reciever/Amp have a late night mode that as Kei described detects volume changes, explosions for example, and takes the volume down to the same level it was just before the ad/explosion.

The volume change is an advertising tectic and if you have ads you will have the voume change, it's like saying "Hey look at me I'm and ad!!!!!"

The PVR multichoice have coming will create a way for you to skip ads but will also create the need for new ads that run during the show. Like in the bottom left/right corner etc. What would you prefer having ads between programming or during your fav shows on the screen.
 
I have my amp remote on my one hand all the time when I'm watching shows with ad breaks - when the channel logo disappears, I immidiantely turn down the volume. Rather irritating I must say. Man, I need a Tivo / HTPC so that I can timeshift and FF through the damn ads.
 
Luxury of a media pc, my friend has his media pc running for a while now and made me think of doing it aswell whenever I decide to get dstv(heck not atm, its costing a fortune for nothing except the sport which is tempting, its worth R400 a month to watch the springboks win a game ;p)

Anyways back on topic, media pc is filtering ads 100% and you can watch everything you want.. works wonders.
 
Judging from all the DSTV related threads on the board these days it may be time to register mydstv.co.za
 
Most TV stations around the world do this. It is deliberate to make the ads stand out.
 
billybobwoolmer said:
This is very irritating, but I fight back by changing channels as soon as ads start so that there AMPS(or whatever it is that counts how many people are watching) rating goes down by 1 i.e. me. Whenever I think something is crud I change channels and surf till the ads are finished. Why do they advertise themselves by the way? Surely if you are watching it already why would you want to get connected again. There marketing is beyond my humble brain.
Click to expand...

No way your channel flicking will affect their ratings unless you get asked questions by a ratings auditor...

DSTV cannot track your usage patterns without asking you...

:)
 
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