"Editor’s note: This article first ran on July 13, 2012, but we’re running it again because the topic is timeless."
I see this kind of thing happening more and more. Looking at the tags on the page, it bears a modified date of 2018-02-09T19:25:10-05:00. This is important, because they are telling Google that the content has been updated, when it hasn't. But they'll get more traffic and revenue now from an old article by lying to Google.
You see this happening on TV now too. In a technique I call "DVR Fraud," shows like 60 Minutes, which are made up of a few 15-30 minute segments per episode, are mixing and matching segments from old shows and creating "new" episodes with nothing new in them except for brief commentary explaining "as we first showed you in 20XX...". They are marked as "new" in the program guide, and if you have set your DVR to record only new episodes of that show, it will record this rehashed content.
TV networks and websites are abusing automated services and tools like Google and your DVR to generate new revenue from old, rehashed content. I despise regulation, but I think somebody needs to take a look at least at the DVR Fraud issue. It is becoming a large-scale fraud, as it is being used to artificially inflate Nielsen ratings, and likely siphon millions of ad dollars based upon viewership that would never have watched the content had it been properly labeled as a rerun.
I basically only watch TV from my DVR. So yes, for me, having to sift through the recorded "new" episodes only to think "oh I remember this one" is annoying. Worse, they are doing it on purpose to artificially inflate their ratings and ad revenue.
"Clip show" episodes have been a cheap trick used by TV fiction for ages. Now they are doing it on the news? I guess it was inevitable that someone would eventually put the concepts together.
For someone who hates regulation... Something entertainment that isn't even a matter of psychological manipulation... needs regulation? Does that mean this guy only wants to regulate things which don't actively reinforce social structures?
Or maybe the best course of action for HNers is to be far less judgmental and self-centered, and offer something other than snark in their comments. I don't spend a great deal of time watching TV, and when I do it is mostly DVR'd content. To have old episodes marked as new doesn't make a huge difference to one viewer - it's an annoyance that costs me a bit of time. But for the people behind this, across millions of viewers also experiencing the same thing, it makes a very large difference in terms of inflated viewership. That's a large-scale, significant fraud, likely involving millions of hours of watch time and millions of dollars in fraudulently generated ad revenue. THAT is why maybe someone like the FCC should take a look at the issue.
Even if they’re ‘tricking’ people into watching a re-run (seems a silly thing to say to me) then it’s still a view isn’t it? People are still watching the adverts so why would the advertisers care? The viewer numbers aren’t wrong.
HN is an extension from YCombinator which has funded a number of successful startups at their very first moments (so relatively low investment at relatively high stakes), which have had huge exits or IPO's; AirBnB and Dropbox are a few to name.
I don't think the company or people hosting HN needs to worry about money.
"Editor’s note: This article first ran on July 13, 2012, but we’re running it again because the topic is timeless."
I see this kind of thing happening more and more. Looking at the tags on the page, it bears a modified date of 2018-02-09T19:25:10-05:00. This is important, because they are telling Google that the content has been updated, when it hasn't. But they'll get more traffic and revenue now from an old article by lying to Google.
You see this happening on TV now too. In a technique I call "DVR Fraud," shows like 60 Minutes, which are made up of a few 15-30 minute segments per episode, are mixing and matching segments from old shows and creating "new" episodes with nothing new in them except for brief commentary explaining "as we first showed you in 20XX...". They are marked as "new" in the program guide, and if you have set your DVR to record only new episodes of that show, it will record this rehashed content.
TV networks and websites are abusing automated services and tools like Google and your DVR to generate new revenue from old, rehashed content. I despise regulation, but I think somebody needs to take a look at least at the DVR Fraud issue. It is becoming a large-scale fraud, as it is being used to artificially inflate Nielsen ratings, and likely siphon millions of ad dollars based upon viewership that would never have watched the content had it been properly labeled as a rerun.