I remember back in the late 60s here in LA there was a company who wanted to set up a pay TV system and were meeting with a lot of opposition. They got some sort of proposition to allow it. One of their selling points was that there would be no commercials. Well they got their way and now we have more commercials than ever on pay TV, which eventually became cable, and then satellite TV. Even PBS is full of commercials at the start and end of the show.

Tivo was supposed to help us zip past the commercials, but the add people are screwing with that by doing little tricks to get you to keep watching them. The networks have changed the start and ending times of shows to try to defeat the Tivo. If you are trying to record 2 shows that start at 9 you can’t because the other show you wanted to watch goes to 9:02. And you can’t set the Tivo to start at 9:02 because it only lets you start early and go late, not start late and go early. Tivo has changed their programming so it will cut short a show if you start before it ends but then you sometimes lose the end of a show. We are at the mercy of Madison Avenue no mater what we try.