I have been noticing for awhile now that the few times I watch TV there are more and more commercials. I will never understand why we have to see commercials on paid cable TV at all and to have as many as they do now makes me a bit miffed.
The other night I was watching one of the few programs I watch on a regular basis, I noticed they seemed to be showing more commercials than program.
I decided I would count the commercials. After 3 to 5 minutes of the program each time they would show either 6 or 9 commercials. They were actually taking up more time with commercials than with the program.
For several weeks I have only watched my local news long enough to see the weather. After seeing so may commercials during the above mentioned program, I decided to watch the whole hour of my local news and count the commercials.
During 57 minutes of what was supposed to be news, weather and sports they showed 33 commercials and 9 political ads. At one point they showed 10 commercials before going back to the news, the other times they showed 6 commercials or 3 commercials and 3 political ads.
It turns out that right now I am paying my provider money to watch commercials more than programs. That is just wrong in my opinion.
Kickin' It In Granny Gear 
We normally watch public broadcasting (no commercials) or taped shows (we zip through them) so – thank goodness – we see very few commercials. On the very rare occasions that we watch something real time, I am shocked at how many ads fill the air.
They seem to be multiplying daily…it is ridiculous. Good idea zipping through them.
I remember a time when cable shows did not have advertising, but that must have been decades ago. We don’t have cable as I refuse to pay for television. We record the programs we want to see, except news which we watch in real time, and then fast-forward through the ads. Recording the programs also allows us to watch them at a time more convenient for us.
Many of the programs we watch are PBS so there are no ads except at the beginning and end. I have recently found that our library system has many of the tv series that you can borrow for 7 or 14 days and so we are now doing that and getting to see some old shows we had never seen before, like Morse and Lewis. Also the Shetland series which did not play here.
Cable was great many years ago. To have dependable internet and what few programs I watch I have no choices but what I have. I would love to be able to get TV over the air and have a good internet source but that is not possible where I live. I am happy for you that you have been able to have what you want without having to see all the commercials and pay high dollars for service.