Hermione Wrote:
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> Stephen Tonkin Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > What does concern me is relaxing the rules
> on
> > advertising on TV. I would not like us ot be
> in
> > the same situation as I encountered across
> the
> > pond, where, a programme on TV would have
> adverts
> > at an increasing frequency as the programme
> > progressed, from say 30 min intervals at teh
> > beginning, to about 3 min at the end,
> especially
> > if it was the denouement of a taut thriller.
> > Totally ruins the tension! Thank God for the
> > advert-free Beeb (but I wonder how long that
> will
> > last).
>
> I find the increasing frequency of adverts on TV
> absolutely exasperating. A few years back, an
> hour-long drama on ITV would be punctuated by two
> advertising slots of a few minutes each, which
> wasn't too bad. These days, as you say, there
> seem to be many more breaks for advertising - to
> the point where I debate not watching the ITV
> channels at all. I try to make intelligent use of
> the breaks by performing some useful household
> task ... but I can envisage a future where I
> dispense with TV entirely, as being non-watchable,
> and return to books and newspapers (provided that
> the latter still exist in some form) for
> entertainment and information.

I hear you! Here in Houston, if there's a TV show I really want to see, I tape it and fast forward through the endless commercials. Here they run to four or five minutes each, about five or six times per hour. It's horrible.

Sue