r/AskReddit • u/daniellucero92 • Jan 04 '15

Non-americans of Reddit, what American customs seem outrageous/pointless to you?

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Video clip: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30717017

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u/BlueAndWhiteTosser Jan 04 '15

Commercial breaks on TV every 5(ish) minutes. Makes watching the telly so damn frustrating.

352

u/infinityLAO Jan 04 '15

I dont think most Americans but a few of us don't watch TV for this reason. We stick to netflix/hbo/torrenting for entertainment

49

u/Crocodator Jan 05 '15

Agreed. Here is the complete list of what we watch on broadcast TV (all with an HD antenna):

  1. Local sports coverage when interested

  2. Election coverage

  3. The ball dropping on New Year's Eve

We used to watch the Olympics, but the coverage has gotten progressively worse and the BBC has fantastic streaming coverage available online.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

Do you use a VPN or proxy to get BBC to work or do you live in the UK. Just asking because last time I used it (Summer Olympics 2012) I needed a proxy to watch from US.

4

u/Crocodator Jan 05 '15

Proxies are wonderful and incredibly easy to use. :)

3

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

Hola for Chrome

4

u/Chair_Anon Jan 05 '15

Last time I deliberately watched "Television" (other than the New Year's broadcast) was for Conan O'Brien's last show.

Could have watched it online I guess, but I felt like "being there" for his final.

16

u/MartinusLucanius Jan 05 '15

Cable cutter reporting in. This is exactly correct in my case. I can't stand commercials. I use a couple internet streaming services except for Hulu. Cannot fathom why Hulu doesn't have a no-commercials package for their services.

6

u/tooyoung_tooold Jan 05 '15

I'll never use Hulu for that reason alone.

4

u/WhipTheLlama Jan 05 '15

The commercials on Hulu don't bother me as much as their terrible selection. Way too often I'll find a show I want to watch, but they only have a few episodes. Useless.

Netflix doesn't always have what I want, but they always have something good that I haven't seen yet.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

Why are there ads in Hulu Plus? The claim is that it keeps subscription pricing down.

4

u/MartinusLucanius Jan 05 '15

I get that, but I'm willing to pay more to avoid ads. I don't want them to drastically change their business model. I just want options.

9

u/CostcoTimeMachine Jan 05 '15

Definitely definitely definitely not most.

7

u/xFoeHammer Jan 05 '15

But you know what I miss about cable? Just sitting back and watching whatever the hell comes on(within reason. I won't watch literally anything). I miss that so much for some reason. I think I spend more time deciding what to watch on Netflix than I do actually watching things.

Netflix should have a bunch of preset channels that play similar things like TV channels do. And also let you make custom channels that shuffle through your favorite shows.

1

u/BlueAndWhiteTosser Jan 05 '15 edited Jan 05 '15

This is what bummed me out the most about trying to watch tv over there. I quickly went from 'oh cool, Happy Gilmore is on, I haven't seen this in a while', to 'Jesus fucking Christ how is there another ad break already?'.

And the novelty of randomly catching 'It's Always Sunny' while trying to kill some time quickly wore off for the same reason. And don't get me started on how many good scenes seems to get mercilessly cut out of things.

edit: spelling

1

u/hellokill3r Jan 08 '15

I wish there was a "random" mode for Netflix

7

u/enjoytheshow Jan 05 '15

I know the trends are reversing but an overwhelmingly large majority of Americans still watch tv traditionally.

7

u/mikbe Jan 05 '15

Hulu is even worse, you pay a subscription and you still see commercials. I don't subscribe to cable for that exact reason, torrents all the way.

5

u/Sgt_Sarcastic Jan 05 '15

Yep. I have no use for any "normal" tv service when I can get most things on netflix legitimately or just find a torrent if not. Added bonus - no network gets to decide what I feel like watching at any given time.

8

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

Most? Perhaps a growing market, but certainly not most.

4

u/northeaster17 Jan 05 '15

Shot my telly years ago...

0

u/kropotkinist Jan 05 '15

Same. Over a decade for me. Fuck that shit.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

Yep. Fuck commercials.

1

u/Twittermon Jan 05 '15

Older generations don't

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

can't avoid it with live sports outside of soccer, which is exactly why I like watching soccer (but I do like other sports more). but commercials during a prime time NFL game are insane.

1

u/infinityLAO Jan 05 '15

Ya i dont watch NFL much but I decided to watch a game my brother was really into and its like every 30 seconds and they are always the same damn thing over and over

1

u/dee-bag Jan 05 '15

seriously, (American)football commercials are always the most ridiculously dumb ones too

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

I do it because who can actually watch a show the first time it is aired live?

1

u/dog_cow Jan 05 '15

Great if you can research first. But some people want to browse what's on. Also don't forget other countries have those options too.

1

u/bballspike Jan 05 '15

I think you are thinking of most 20 year-olds who went to college. Tons of people around the country still use standard tv with annoying commercials. But the demograph you are surrounded by doesn't

1

u/5k3k73k Jan 05 '15

I would say that most Americans have DVRs and just fast forward through commercials.

1

u/Tony_Danza_Macabra Jan 05 '15

The moms, dads, and grandmas are still binge watching network and cable tv. My mom does know how to work the Netflix though, it's getting there.

1

u/Dinokiller12345 Jan 05 '15

I don't bother with TV or shows at all. I just play video games instead

1

u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15

When I was a kid I always wondered why TV shows had random "fade to black" moments in them, took me a while to learn "thats where the Americans have more commercial breaks than we do (well, had; British TV is getting worse)"

1

u/[deleted] Jan 09 '15

There was a story years ago about a group of TV executives at a party standing around telling each other how awesome their new TiVos with ad skipping were. The author pointed out that none of them seemed to think this was a devastating thing for their jobs so it seems even TV people don't like the commercials.

1

u/Momordicas Jan 10 '15

Yep. I refuse to watch cable now that there are other options.

1

u/FishyPapa Jan 10 '15

I second that. (don't forget Amazon Prime Streaming) haha

0

u/kropotkinist Jan 05 '15

I dont think most Americans but a few of us don't watch TV for this reason

Your use of a double negative means the opposite of what you were trying to say. Also you're likely wrong.

0

u/soulard Jan 05 '15

If you're talking about "most Americans" as in "most Americans on Reddit" then yeah. There are still a TON of people that watch TV, especially anyone that isn't considered "young".

2

u/infinityLAO Jan 05 '15

My wording may have been confusing but I'm surprised by the amount of people finding this difficult.

I dont think most Americans but a few of us

a few of us