A quick observation that I cannot properly quantify: We’ve been struck over the last few days how much more commercial time there is on American TV as compared to the channels we watched in England. It feels as if every 6-7 minutes there is a 3-4 minute commercial break. Our recollections of the British TV somehow suggest considerably longer intervals of content between commercial breaks.
That’s as enlightening as I have the luxury of being today.
Well, see Ilya, that’s what you call a benefit of capitalism. In Britain, everyone has to buy a television license to receive broadcasts so that television can suck at the public teat, and thus the British public is deprived of lengthy, repeated advertising breaks. In America, however, broadcasting is free and therefore the American public enjoys the benefit of having their commercial broadcasts interrupted every thirteen minutes or so by three minutes of advertising. This is why an hourlong British television show is nearly an hour in length while American hourlong shows are only about forty-seven minutes long, further evidence of American television superiority.
Or something like that.
Wait ’til you hear what we do to radio.
Which is also why 1 hour UK televison shows are either edited to death, take an hour and a half to broadcast or just get shown on PBS over here. And people ask why the average American has such a short attention span…