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When I was growing up, we had just the TV set and nobody ever heard of a thing called an Internet. I would sometimes watch programs on the TV with my father. Always with the commercials. I would would say to my father, "Father, why always with the commercials? Why don't they just play the program we want to watch?

And my father would say "Son, those commercials that you hate to sit through are the reason that shows exist for you to watch. See, the companies these commercials are for pay a lot of money to the TV station to show them. These companies do this because more people will then buy their products. Then the TV station pays some of that money from the advertisers back to the studios who produce those shows so that they can keep making more shows."

And I would say "Gee whiz Dad, I didn't know TV was that complicated. Well I sure am glad for commercials then because otherwise I would not get to see Lassie or The Beaver! I guess I can learn to like the commercials."

And I did learn to like the commercials. And when I grew up, I bought lots of stuff. Then I subscribed to Netflix and never saw another commercial again.

THE END

Your father is correct. TV cameras today are $200K, lighting and news casters cost a bundle and set designers need money for their families. Thus, ads are annoying but productive.

The problem is that ads have become louder, longer and more indecent. Thus, it is best to keep kids aways from tv’s and computers and movies. Well, that’s no fun for kids. How about a dvd player with good movies and The Rifleman with Chuck Connors episodes?

Two or three years off of TV now, watching Netflix, youtube, etc. I had already turned TV off for the most part, wasn’t turning it on, favoring Netflix.

I was in a hotel just over a year ago and “got” to watch TV. I was ill. More commercial than show.

I don’t resent website ads, per se, for exactly the reason your father described. It’s the same for much of he web as it is for TV. However, the ads now are almost certainly designed to be more incredibly obnoxious than one would imagine possible. It is almost as if the web designers are trying to get you to swear off their site and never come back.

Remember when “cable TV”, in exchange for a modest monthly charge, was supposed to deliver commercial-free entertainment?

Now, the monthly charge is anything but modest, the non-broadcast channels are loaded with commercials, and actual entertainment is almost impossible to find?