Mixed truth. They carried broadcast networks that always had ads. Fox, NBC, ABC all had ads.
Comcast would even overwrite one or two of the network ads with their own ads. A commercial break would start, some life insurance BS would start playing audio compressed all to hell so it’s twice as loud, at the end, you’d catch 5 seconds of some toy commercial and then one or two other regular network commercials.
Premium channels like HBO didn’t have ‘ads,’ but they did have station identification and self-promotion for what’s coming to the platform in the near future. They wouldn’t break the movies up, though, only in between. A few standouts didn’t start with ads like Nickelodeon, but eventually got them.
Saturday cartoons on USA and TNT certainly had ads from day one.
Our national tv channel is lawfully barred from running commercials.
They just changed the definition of ads they run to “messages of commercial importance” or some dumb shit like that. And just like that, ads on the national channel are suddenly a-ok
PBS here has ads. They are short, but there are ads nonetheless. This is over and above the ads for their own shows that will be on the channel at a later date.
I heard tell from a Gen Xer who said cable TV used to not have ads.
You’re lying. I can’t imagine this so it must be false!
'Tis true
Mixed truth. They carried broadcast networks that always had ads. Fox, NBC, ABC all had ads.
Comcast would even overwrite one or two of the network ads with their own ads. A commercial break would start, some life insurance BS would start playing audio compressed all to hell so it’s twice as loud, at the end, you’d catch 5 seconds of some toy commercial and then one or two other regular network commercials.
Premium channels like HBO didn’t have ‘ads,’ but they did have station identification and self-promotion for what’s coming to the platform in the near future. They wouldn’t break the movies up, though, only in between. A few standouts didn’t start with ads like Nickelodeon, but eventually got them.
Saturday cartoons on USA and TNT certainly had ads from day one.
Our national tv channel is lawfully barred from running commercials.
They just changed the definition of ads they run to “messages of commercial importance” or some dumb shit like that. And just like that, ads on the national channel are suddenly a-ok
PBS here has ads. They are short, but there are ads nonetheless. This is over and above the ads for their own shows that will be on the channel at a later date.
Talk about looking at the past with distorting rose-colored glasses!