Yes. When cable TV was first marketed, one of the major draws was no commercials. Our monthly fees were paying the bills. Boy, did that fall by the wayside. Although I'm pretty much passing on network news now, it seems about 40% of their half hour is devoted to commercials. I need to secure a stopwatch and get some actual data.
Would like to see a return to the days when a single product sponsored a show. One sees a run of 6 or 7 products in every segment now. It's extremely rare for a commercial to steer my purchasing direction. I discover a need or want, research the products, and make my own decisions. Have not had need for meds or a lawyer anyway.
When and where did you have cable TV with no commercials?
We first got cable around '83 and it always had commercials except when you paid for the premium channels, which in 83 were: HBO, Cinamax, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Disney Channel.
There is about 8-10 minutes of commercials in a 30 minute show and about 15-20 minutes in a 60 minute program.