So, is ER the latest television series to get "squeezed" by NBC?

[derby378]

Their old intro has been deep-sixed. Corporate probably wanted to squeeze in yet another 30 seconds of ads for stuff we don't need.

This is really bad for the actors and the creators. On average, a 30-minute program consists of 20 minutes of actual program and 10 minutes of advertising. That's more ads than just a few years ago. Add the "perpetual ad" in the form of that little channel ID logo and the annoying pop-up ads that some channels splash during the shows themselves, and you've got a big mess.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

1. The "perpetual ad" is actually called a "bug"

And it has nothing to do with advertising. In fact, bugs were developed around the turn of the century in order to stop pirating of silent movies.

They've since come back into fashion again as something of an effort to help prevent unlicensed copying and distribution over the Internets.

Funny how technology developed circa-1900 is becoming popular again due to technology.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

2. Yeah, but it's unnecessary to show a bug that takes up the entire bottom

half of the screen and is advertising some other tv show, as TNT likes to do.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

3. Yeah, that's an ad

I don't have cable, so I forget about those.

I'm talking about the creepy little eye in the bottom right corner of CBS shows or the creepy little ABC in the bottom corner of ABC shows.

Them's bugs.

[Orrex]

5. I didn't know that! But...

The first modern "bug" that I ever noticed was on the USA network during an airing of Swamp Thing back in 1991. If memory serves, it was the "USA" logo in bold-red, appearing at the bottom right as they do nowadays.

But this preceded the widespread use of the internets for video piracy, I believe. Or were they simply combatting the swapping of VHS-taped programming?

[lukasahero]

4. Not according to Executive Producer, David Zabel

"September 21, 11:12 PM

The New Opening Music

There are a lot of challenges to programming and we felt that the opening titles were a little long and we wanted to take that time and use it for story, which is why this year's theme music is shorter than previous seasons."

http://blogs.nbcuni.com/er/2006/09/the_new_opening_music.php#comments

(They're taking a lot of flack over it.)