Too many adverts!

ITV had two breaks in an hour from at least the early sixties.

They went to three around 2002.

As for length, the maximum length break in 3m 50s of which only 3m 30s can be advertising.
 
The tipping point has almost been reached for me where the programmes have become unwatchable. I have even seen programmes with a set of adverts, then the introduction titles then another set of adverts immediately after! :mad:
 
It was always going to happen. The last government relaxed the ads regulation, increasing the amount of ads shown.

I can remember the good old days of one short ad break during a half hour show and three for a programme lasting the minimum of an hour. Sadly no more.

You are right, the worst offenders are ITV...and as a result, because their shows are rubbish to, I no longer watch ITV. I simply can't stand it.
 
I believe that's the standard formatting for adverts in America - which we have now adopted ourselves. :(

It really does amaze me that the powers that be can't see how they are alienating more and more viewers...it's like the pathetic "war on piracy", I guess - instead of embracing the downloading method of music at the beginning before it grew too much for the industry to ever have a hope in hell of controlling it, things spiralled to the point where people turned their backs on them. Advertising, hopefully, could go the same way if people continue to download programmes and use PVRs and Sky + to avoid the ridiculous amount of ads.
 
I'm not sure they ever used to last that long. Now, the breaks are a minimum of three and a half minutes, sometimes longer. It is all very well you saying Sky plus it or whatever, but if you haven't got Sky Plus...the easier option for me is to bypass the vast majority of the commercial sector, especially ITV.:mad:
 
When watching a Sky+ recording,when the ads come on I back up to the planner,then select the programme again and enter a starting point five minutes after the 'last viewed' time. More often than not I'm near enough slap bang on the return of the programme,sometimes I have to wind it forwards or backwards by half to one minute or so.
 
I don't have Sky + either. My way around adverts is to just grab the programme from the internet after it's aired. The ads are always edited out - lovely. :)

I'm waiting for Downtown Abbey to finish airing on ITV and then I'll just download the series. If I like it, the official DVD will be purchased (as I believe in supporting products I've enjoyed). Either way - I know I'll have a much better time watching it without ads than with.

The commerical sector is shooting itself in the foot with their vicious, bully-boy tactics when it comes to advertising.
 
We're also introducing "season breaks" for our shows, it looks like - next year's Doctor Who is going to be split down the middle with one block shown one half of the year, and the other the next half...just like the US do.

I wish we'd learn that not everything which works in the US will work over here. :(
 
In the US it's generally worse than a season break. They show a 22/24 episode series over 39 weeks with lots of weeks off, scattered throughout. And in the weeks off they often put in repeats from earlier in the season.
 
Likewise - I think it's an excuse for Moffat to be able to work on Sherlock, myself, but I can see it becoming commonplace here now. We've become way too obsessed with "event television"...which I really do not like.
 
I agree though we seem to have adopted the word "season" into the english way of speaking instead of saying "series" one americanism we seem keen to use.! :( I thought in the uk we had series.

However i do agree splitting a series up may work in america but this is not america!,and people myself included would i think prefer a series to be shown from the off to finish in one go,instead of being split into a couple of parts with a break inbetween.
 
Season breaks are so stupid. Perhaps in America they're used to them but when the writer's strike in America forced Britain to have season breaks, I think it lost a lot of viewers. But I think the reason for a Doctor Who break is that the guy working on that also does Sherlock, so he's taking time out to do stuff on that as well.
 
I now won't watch a commercial channel without prerecording the programme I want to watch on a PVR and skipping the ads, simply because the amount of ads and their frequency basically ruin the flow of the programme or film I'd be watching. It'll be hell once the carpet baggers get their wish and turn the BBC into yet another commercial channel.
 
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