How do people watch TV in the US with all these commercial breaks?

I'm from Europe, and we're used to watching your tv shows in one go, or 2 parts, but with multiple awkward fade-out/fade-in, or really bad title cuts, one after the other.

I didn't think about it for a long time, but now that i'm watching more US tv live, like news, it just boggles my mind how many commercial breaks you have in one hour, it's almost more commercials than shows!

Over here, we watch our show and when there's a break we change the channel to something else, and then go back, because we only have like one or two breaks every hour.

So my question is, how do you guys watch tv, and how much do you hate watching ads?

I was on a trip to Florida once. One night I was just hanging in the hotel room and put on Fox, watched an episode of The Simpsons. Went something like this.
Ad Break - intro plays - second ad break - couple of minutes of show - third ad break - couple more minutes of show - fourth ad break - show plays until credits - ad break - credits start and end - ad break. It was impressive to see in a way but I would go mad if I had to watch TV like that.

I'm sure there was also a channel with no ads that just showed CSI over and over.

They also have ads playing in a smaller picture / banner while the show is on. Awful, just awful.

I've watched US TV for a little over an hour once with friends. I've never watched TV again since. I thought it was bad where I lived with 3-4 breaks every hour. But no, on top of having to live by someone else's schedule and more often than not having shitty image quality, TV is also bad because of the constant commercial breaks.

Don't watch TV.

This is why on demand services are generally the only way to watch something.

The only US TV I've ever watched was a youtube rip of the 1991 buddy cop pilot called Tag Team starring Roddy Piper and Jessie Ventura. In the 50odd minutes of the youtube video there were at least 4, maybe 5 advert breaks most of which were either McDonalds or for Medicine. As a one time thing it was kind of fun but annoying by the end, if I had to watch that amount of adverts everytime I watched TV It'd be massively annoying. Bless the BBC.

Yeah watching american shows and noticing all the obvious fades where ads would normally be is absolutely mindblowing. I already hate watching tv over here, and we only have one 5min~ break every half hour. The american breaks seem entirely unwatchable.

TV tends to be a more social experience in the U.S. from what I remember. You talk during commercials, make a snack, play with the dog, make a phone call, etc. These days it seems like the ability to pause on demand has replaced that, so it's now it's just annoying.

Then again, I rarely watch TV unless other people want to watch something together, on either side of the Atlantic. Though I do find those 9 minute commercial dumps between shows on French TV to be annoying. Might just be the channels we occasionally watch. (M6? Wife generally controls the TV.)

Don't have that many commercials over here, but at least those few are still pretty terrible!

Or at least it used to be like that. If I'm not visiting my family or doing some other socializing business that involves a living room, I haven't watched regular TV in a very long time.

Oh yes, commercials breaks are usually longer in Europe, but again, you only get one or two per hour, and because they are longer and you usually know how long it's gonna be (some channels even have timers on commercial breaks), you can change the channel, and watch something else or know that you have time to go do something else and then come back, and if you don't care about it being live, all tv services here let you go back in time if you miss the first few minutes after the ad break.

Just one more way America is TERRIBLE!

This is why DVR became a thing a few years ago and why streaming is so popular now too. I don't know many people who watch TV anymore and thos who do simply fast forward through the ads.

DVR. Record your shows, watch them at your leisure, and fast forward through (or entirely skip) the commercials. Most 60 minute shows are about 44 minutes, and most 30 minute shows are about 22 minutes without commercials. There's no way I could watch live TV anymore, I've tried.

Have you tried watching live sports? Holy shit. What's better is have you ever gone to a sporting event in person and wondered why the hell everyone is just standing around? Commercial break!

By not watching television.

I don't anymore. Live TV has gotten insane with the ads. My favorite is when they literally increase the playback speed of syndicated shows (on top of cutting scenes) to fit in the time slot with modern ad breaks, and even stop a show mid-scene to fit an ad break where it was never meant to be. I understand that ads have to exist, and that's fine, but don't butcher the show for them.

It was always annoying and those examples you provided are booty, I shouldn't need an itinerary for commercial breaks...!

I haven't had "television" since October of 2010 and I don't miss it for a second. I don't watch the news, I don't sit through endless commercials, and I don't pay a bunch of money for crap I never watch. The only way I could see paying for satellite or cable is if you're into watching sports.

That being said, ads are more frequent depending on what you're watching. Football? Tons of ads. Watching a television show? Some ads. For every hour of television I think there is around 14-15 minutes of ads. For 30 minutes I think you're looking at 8-9, depending. That being said when you look at something like Japan we are pretty much in line with them for how long our content runs.

I've seen some (illegal) streams of something RAW from the UK and there were a ton of commercial breaks in that so I'm not really sure America is egregiously worse than anyone else in the US. I would also say that when your station is the BBC (state run television) I am sure its pretty easy to guarantee there isn't a commercial but when it's a wholly private entity you don't have those assurance of "we're always on, no matter what because the taxpayers paid for it".

I'm from the U.S. and the answer is that ad breaks used to be a little less frequent (I think they started getting longer in the 80s and 90s.) When I was a kid I just sort of put up with it, even though even then I knew it was bad. After the popularization of DVD and the opportunity to watch commercial free stuff I basically only ever watched TV with a computer nearby (so I could surf the web or play a game during the breaks), for specific sporting events I wanted to see, or when I was sick. I also watched a lot of HBO and Showtime because they didn't have ad breaks.

Now I don't watch commercial TV at all, outside of some sporting events. I have subscriptions to Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon and between them there is always something I want to watch when I want to watch TV. I can't stand the ad breaks and I won't go back to them.

That was a very long-winded way of saying that as an American I recognize the problem and have for decades but the only thing you can do is sort of "watch around" it.

Considering how cheap it is to get around the issue with something like Hulu I have no idea why ANYONE puts up with it.

The only american TV i watch is an Nascar race now and then and its great with all the little breaks they have. During those breaks its usualy one camera angle, either an overview or inside some cockpit and i can actually see whats happening and hear some sounds from the race while a chilled out local dude gives some relaxing commentary and summary. Then its back to hot Michael bay cuts and empty phrases again.

I cant understand how anyone would watch that if those breaks was filled with ads instead.

The amount of brakes are insane. Sometimes they break and come back for 10 seconds and then end credits roll. I think it is bad in Sweden with brakes every 15-20 minutes but in America it is more like 5 minutes. But I rarely watch TV at all I mostly watch Netflix with no ads.

Yeah, to be honest, most of the stuff i watch today is on the internet, like youtube or netflix, and the stuff i do watch on tv, like some of you said, i use the dvr functionality and watch whenever i feel like it, and skip the ads, it is still annoying to have to skip through the ads though...

As an American who hasn't had cable in several years its totaly wild to watch TV, commercials seem so sleazy.

@retrometal: i know, we're scum and the worst.

I don't watch TV. I don't watch most TV shows anyway and when I do want to watch a TV show, I'll find it on the internet or get it some other way. I see very few advertisements in media these days.

And yes, almost everyone here complains about ads. "Three minutes of show, ten minutes of commercials" is a complaint I hear often, but a lot of those people won't even think of cutting off cable so ads aren't going away for them anytime soon.

I don't anymore really. Not counting HBO, I probably average 30 mins a week watching live TV that isn't sports.

Everyone just uses DVR/On Demand/Netflix to circumvent that. Except for people that watch Football religiously I suppose; there's at least an hour and a half of commercials during each football game.

I know, I'm one of them. I was just making a joke... America hate is rampant.

I do not watch TV like that but most that do these days are not paying complete attention to it at all times and a bit of they are people who just like to lay back and relax and not focus every minute.

More and more people are ditching TV. But some still do really watch. I think a lot of people on a forum like this are going to jump in here and say "no one even watches TV or records everything" and that's not true but is increasingly the case.

There's also still live sports for which it's inescapable, mostly. I watch many NBA games online and I love getting European feeds where they stay in the arena through the commercial breaks and everything. Makes me feel like I'm there.

By getting on demand streaming services, downloading adblockers, and finding streams of whatever you want to watch live. I haven't watched cable TV in probably 6-7 years. Way too many commercials to fill that hour block.

I've been to Europe, in most countries have plenty of commercials. Even if you are from the UK, the BBC is only a small minority of the channels.

I only watch local channels rarely these days. Like only if there is bad weather and I need to see a live map in case my net is being a derp. Which happens. Other than that, I avoid traditional tv. The commercials drive me nuts.

DVR as much as possible and skip through the commercials for me. Live sports is the worst though with all the ad breaks, especially the NFL is terrible with all the commercials.

My parents have cable, so I've been watching some bit by bit over the past couple weeks. Maybe I'm just used to it or not particularly invest, but tv shows don't bother me cause they very obviously build the show around the ad breaks.

Movies though, naw son. Easy way to waste an extra hour as they awkwardly do a really meek fade to black after a horrific explosion.

The simple answer is just don't watch TV

1) Many people have been dropping cable for on-demand video streaming services.
2) DVR has become much more prevalent over the last decade.
3) Anything made for TV is already structured around having commercial breaks (22 minutes or 44 minutes of show per 30- or 60-minute block), so it's not like they would just cut out the commercials and suddenly you'd have more show to watch.
4) It is trivial to find something to do for 1-3 minutes. Go to the bathroom, grab a snack or drink, play with a pet, check your phone, talk to the other people in the room, zone out, or even just mute the TV.

I don't watch any actual TV shows anymore, but I do watch something like 2-30 of hours of live sports every week depending on what's in season. I just look at twitter or play a game on my phone during the commercials; it's not hard at all.

I don't watch regular TV anymore. Just netflix and amazon prime.

Subscription-based digital a-la-carte services are becoming more popular because commercials are the worst. However, advertisements pay the bills so... /shrug

I don't know by not worrying about it. Using the bathroom, getting a snack, checking the phone, is this really an issue?

I haven't regularly watched TV for years so I don't quite remember how it was. But having watched some live TV very recently, I feel like it has gotten worse.

Cord Cutting is a very real problem for companies right now. So they are squeezing as much commercials in a slot as humanly possible.

And the variety of commercials has also gotten worse too. My brother and I watched a couple of hours of TV and each and every commercial slot had the same exact commercial pop up. Had we had drinks we would have started a drinking game for how many times this same commercial would play.

Watching live tv? What are we, animals? DVR + On Demand Streaming (Netflix/Amazon Prime/Hulu/etc.) means never watching commercials again. Even with sports I'll wait until I have at least an hour or so buffer before I start watching it. It is interesting to hear how different it is over in Europe though. Surprising, actually.

People DVR shows and then fast forward through the ads.

Also, don't watch TV.

Like others have stated, I just don't watch "regular" tv (I'm lumping cable and satellite in with over the air). I "cut the cord" about 5 or 6 years ago and haven't looked back. That said:

1.) Feel sorry for sports watchers, TV (and the sports organizations) don't have a lot of incentive to give their fans a lot of choice

2.) Commercials are so pervasive and ingrained in our TV that network shows (and ad run stations who have their own tv shows like USA, AMC, etc.) specific design their shows AROUND commercial breaks. This is why when you go to (for example) UK and watch a US show, you'll notice strange breaks while you watch a (relatively) commercial free run. Reverse is true too, shows like BBC's Doctor Who when they air on BBC America often break at random points so as to accomodate for US ad breaks.

@retrometal said:

What are you two on about? Our commercials are the best. Our commercials are so good, they're the best commercials the world has ever seen. Other countries are going to look at what we're doing with our commercials and say, "How did they make such good commercials? Their commercials are so good we're jealous. We wish we could have commercials that good."

And we're going to make Mexico pay for our commercials.

I actually work for an ad agency. Commercials are terrible.

I only watch sports and wrestling and it can get pretty dire. But it's not a big deal. I'll take the commercial break time to I don't know do some curls or close my eyes and take a power nap or something.

People often complain about this. As I'm sure you've noticed, a 30 minute show is actually around 22 minutes. An hour show is closer to 44 minutes. There are a ton of commercials.

In terms of how we get around it, if you have a good cable package, it probably comes with a DVR, so you can fast forward it. A lot of people have a service like Hulu, which still shows some adds, but not nearly enough. Also, Netflix, HBO, etc. don't have any ads.

I never had cable TV of my own, so if I were to watch "TV" everything would be streamed (Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll). In the cases where I really wanted to watch a TV show but didn't have a means to do so, I would buy the season off Amazon.

I feel bad for people still paying for live tv services. Cable, satellite.

On demand services are the future.

American TV networks don't get money from the government and American corporations love to make da profits, so... commercials.

I don't watch a ton, but when I do it's either on demand or DVR. I don't think I could actually watch TV the "old way" anymore.

I never minded because if I was watching alone I just DVRed or something and it wasn't a thing; or I was watching with my family and we'd chat and eat or something during the breaks. Of course the breaks wweren't as egregious back then because DVRs were still a somewhat novel concept for the market. Now they have to cram adds in to hope you'll see anything.

Yeah, as a European it's kind of infuriating watching US tv.