US Cable Support → Comcast Cable TV > [Content] Is Comcast inserting Ads when you change channels?

[Content] Is Comcast inserting Ads when you change channels?

Have you experienced this abuse by Comcast? My wife was watching a program on CNN in the master bedroom. I had to get something off my nightstand. While in the bedroom I became interested in an upcoming subject on CNN. When I changed channels to the same channel number in the family room that my wife was watching, I did not see the program that was appearing on the television my wife was watching. Comcast substituted a locally produced commercial on the STB in the family room and I missed the first part of the subject. I am getting very frustrated. Most of the time when I change channels I am presented with a commercial before seeing the program even if a commercial was not appearing on the same channel on the other TV. I also notice that when I switch from a standard definition channel to a HD channel by entering the channel number rather than using the radio button on screen, the commercial on the HD channel is sometimes is a different commercial than that on the standard definition channel. I wonder if other readers of this thread are experience this same problem?

I haven't seen that behavior here in San Jose, CA on Comcast. Maybe it's a regional thing that they're rolling out. Or, do you perhaps have the newer X1 STB? It might come along with that 'smarter' box.

I'd be miffed as well.
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- Bill

Both cable boxes are Motorola DCX3400's which we had for about two years.

Well then, it must be a regional thing that's still being rolled out across the country. Something else I can "look forward to" I guess.
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- Bill

How would comcast be doing this? Are you suggesting that comcast is sending out multiple streams of the same channel, with each stream carrying a different advertisement stream? How do the boxes determine what ad they show?

Since you have 2 DVRs you should be able to record the same show on both boxes and find where the commercials are different

Here is how it works: My wife is watching CNN on 423 and is connected to the CNN stream. I am watching NBC on 432. I enter 423 0n the STB I am using. The display shows 423 but the system connects my STB to a different channel and starts a commercial on that channel. When the commercial it has inserted ends, the system connects the STB I am using to the actual CNN stream. Sometimes after the system completes the commercial it has inserted, I see part of a commercial already in progress that is part of the CNN stream.

The system that inserts commercials uses the same scheme as the system that inserts the On Demand programming. When you select a program using On Demand the system connects your STB to a dedicated channel, which number is unknown to you, connected to the server sending the program you selected to your STB. If you cancel an On Demand program, the system immediately reconnects you to the stream/channel you were previously watching. When the system inserts a commercial, the channel's stream you requested is not affected, only the STB you are using while the STB is temporarily connected to a dedicated channel connected between your STB and the server, running the commercial, selected by the system. When the commercial ends the STB is connected to the stream selected by the user. The user believes that the inserted commercial was running when the channel was selected. I could not believe what I was seeing. The CNN stream was running on the TV my wife was watching for the past half hour while I was seeing a commercial on the TV I was watching immediately after I changed the channel to CNN, not the CNN stream.

Soo is your box storing cookies for what channels/shows/commercials you usually pay attention to and then showing those new commercials based on that?

How do you know that you aren't watching the CNN stream and your wife's box is not tuning to the alternate stream?

* By your theory of using a VOD session to establish a different commercial set, you could disable your return path and prevent the box from properly communicating with the VOD server.

Occam's Razor: You're not actually watching the same channels.

Otherwise, sounds like your wife is watching on DVR and rewound, while you jump into the live stream when you change the channel.

"Local inserts" or "Local Avails" have been around almost as long as cable TV has. Previous generations of it used audible touch tones to trigger them, in the digital world "triggers" for lack of a better word are included in the MPEG transport stream.

There are several trials going on to provide more customized ad insertion (selling TV ads based on impression like internet banner ads) to tv stream, though none should actually interrupt TV programming. If that's what you saw then you may be in a trial that's not quite baked yet (don't know, just speculation). The only exceptions that I know of where content replacement does occur is Weather Channel local on the 8's and HLN has a carve out for local news every once in a while (in my market some awful program called Comcast Newsmakers runs in that block).

Someone mentioned different commercials in SD vs. HD -- that's totally plausible. Most TV nets have a separate feed going to the cable ops for SD and HD, so it's entirely possible to have different spots running sd vs. hd.

This is quite easy to solve.

Change the channel and if you see a commercial wait until it is over. Then watch 5 seconds of the news segment. Then change the channel to another news channel or any other channel. Watch it for five seconds. Then change back to the original news channel.

In your situation a commercial should be running.

I bet one doesn't.

Comcast does local commercials inserts on both standard definition and HD channels now. The system is sometimes off a couple seconds and why you see the beginning or end of the channel's commercials. I have also seen commercials off as much as 15 seconds on HGTV.

Comcast is also inserting commercials on our local channels now after they renewed some carriage contracts recently.