• prole@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    32
    ·
    1 year ago

    Even as a child, when we had cable, I would ask my dad why we still had to watch commercials even though we pay for the service. I understood why stations like CBS, NBC, or ABC may have needed ads as they were free over-the-air, but surely paying for cable should mean no ads, right?

    Never had a good answer. It’s pretty fucked up that we collectively allowed them to pull that shit on us and put up with it for like 3 decades.

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      1 year ago

      There was a brief and glorious time when Pay Cable was billed as being ad-free. You would still see promos for other shows and channels between shows, but there were no commercial breaks!

      • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        Same as BBC in the UK.

        Maybe a 5-10 sec “And next on BBC 1 is blah blah and on BBC 2 we have blah blah starting at 7 o’clock”

        Of course you “have” to pay for it, though (if you don’t pay nobody would know).

      • bassomitron@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Oh shit, I forgot about that being a thing. Wow, how the fuck did society get so accustomed to dealing with that BS? Granted, we almost broke out of it when streaming became mainstream, but it looks like we’re about to get a screwed right back into it.