Your last suggestion has some merit. I know that one of the reasons I FF is that 4-7 minutes of commercials bore me to tears. What the networks need to consider is that if they force us to sit through those long blocks of commercials, a lot of us will just turn off the teevee and go do something else. Most teevee shows are just not good enough to endure so many commercials!
I have found a lot of shows I couldn't enjoy on "TV" I can enjoy if I download them and watch them commercial free. Those long commercial breaks just kill a lot of TV shows.
Just about any slightly popular to very popular show can be found easily for download.
FNC showed the emmy winners this morning. I have not heard of most of the shows and watched none.
ABC is missing the point. Commercials are embeded in a PRODUCT. People are not watching their PRODUCT.
The commercials are also darned LOUD. It's as if someone pumped the volume up by ten notches or so whenever they come on...