Dear Comcast

New Haven Comcast officeDear Comcast,

I am a subscriber to your New Haven, Connecticut system. I’m going to complain about commercials, but probably not in the way you expect.

The timing of your local commercial breaks is screwed up. I can’t believe no one there has noticed. I do. It’s been happening for months.

Here’s what happens. During a network break, a national commercial will be cut while in-progress as your local break rolls. This doesn’t happen at the very beginning or end of the spot, it’s right in the middle.

Then, when the cluster of local ads ends, you go back and catch the last few seconds of the last national spot.

Are you running 90 seconds of commercials in a 120 second hole? Maybe. I don’t really know.

All I can tell you is it’s jarring and puzzling. It’s as if you go in late and come out early.

Could you take care of it, please?

All the best,
Geoff

14 thoughts on “Dear Comcast”

  1. I notice this on WTNH all the time. you’ll get a blip of a commercial, then different commercial starts. I have a feeling it’s a station problem, rather than a cable supplier problem. But it drives me nuts!

    1. I have been noticing it for months myself. Mostly WTNH, but other cable channels as well. I find it quite annoying!

  2. Time Warner cable in SOCAL has the exact same issue..and it is very confusing.

    Good thing my brain pretty much filters out ALL commercials…

  3. My question is, why do advertisers–local and national–put up with it. Commercial insertion isn’t that hard… or shouldn’t be.

  4. HI Geoff – we’d like to get more info from you so that we can communicate this with our local colleagues. We’ll check with our network partners too. Will you please contact us at we_can_help@cable.comcast.com? If it is not so much to ask, will you please let us know the phone number associated with the account? Also, please add a link to this page for reference.

    Thanks in advance and I apologize for the trouble.

    ComcastMark
    Comcast Corp.
    National Customer Operations
    We_can_help@cable.comcast.com

    1. Looks like you’ve become the volunteer consultant.
      Thanks (in advance) for straightening this out for them and us.

  5. Hi Geoff,
    This also happens on the Cablevision(Optimum)in the Bridgeport region all the time on numerous channels. Even see a commercial with local merchants saying “This is our commercial and this is the networks we show it on”. They are annoying but I think the trend is here to stay. Only the local market is seeing the local ad and everybody else is seeing national ad.Just probably timing issue with technician at the switch.

  6. This drives me crazy, also! I’ve worked in radio since 1987, and worked with automation systems since 1997! Timing stopsets and breaks is NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, yet these mis-timed ads have been happening not just for months, but **YEARS**!! There truly is NO EXCUSE for it! I’m sure that the Networks send coded signals specifically for local affiliates and Cable companies to trigger local inserts! WHY THE TIMING ISSUES???

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