It used to be so nice reading or watching a video. Now you have to wade through stupid ads and links to links to links which at the end of it is a blurb before you can actually read what you originally clicked on......or sometimes there is nothing at the end of road.

You tell me... 

I like to watch South Park online, but, since the latest season began earlier this year, commercial break went from three short 15 or 30 seconds breaks to ones that go on for minutes. Particularly annoying when they show you the same darn commercial 4 times in a row (which happens all the time).

Even funnier is that it sometimes mess up the player and you just can't resume the episode. :s

If at least the commercials were about something which might interest me - but video games and those toxic energy drinks? No thanks.

I've bitten the bullet and resigned myself to the fact that if you want ad-free content on the internet, you have to pay a little subscription fee. So I don't mind the $10 or so it costs me to subscribe to Netflix, and the same for Spotify. For other types of content, it's amazing how much the AdBlock+ browser add-on gets rid of. 

I've actually avoided most "content" somehow.  Never thought I'd watch as little TV as I have, but 1/3 of the time is now dedicated to commercials and, when I had cable, the On Demand shows now had the commercials and have disallowed fast-forwarding on many of the shows.  WTH???

If I get the time and the desire, Netflix will be getting a subscription from me.

The part which probably irks me the most about internet distribution is when you want to buy something and be legit - a series, a book or an album - which is available for free everywhere on the net but unavailable for purchase in your region or such.

There's a French series I like to watch - short 4 minutes sketch. Sticking w/ the official website means having to put up w/ publicity every time you load a new episode and jumping through all kind of hoops. Unfortunately, we cannot buy that show here in the US.

But then you launch YouTube and find all the episodes, sometimes put together end to end (much more convenient), and w/ only one add at the beginning. 

Sometimes I feel like the distributors aren't in touch w/ reality.

Hey if you can watch it for free on YouTube.....

I seriously think that some copyright owners just don't care about their stuff being on YouTube. Sure there's a lot of stuff that gets taken down as soon as it's put up, but then again I have songs bookmarked from years ago that are still there. 

There's a classic UK TV show from the 80's called Auf Weidersehen Pet which is available for purchase on DVD and has been since forever. Around 26 hour long episodes. Yet the whole thing has been on YouTube, in HQ, for years without being taken down. 

It's a pretty dismal state of affairs.

Back in the 60s when cable was first being touted the idea was you paid a fee because there were no commercials. Last time I checked it seemed like half the channels I had were 24 hour commercials. And I'm paying for them whether I watch them or not.

The internet will, I suspect, end up largely the same. Go shopping!!!

Regards,

I've got used to watching Internet TV (Netflix mostly) and just love the "no commercials". Last night, we tried watching NCIS (the new season) on CBS or some station online and just couldn't watch the show as the commercials seemed just as long as the show. 

I'm getting the Roku box so I can get "commercial free TV" and maybe even subscribe to Hulu +. 

We got rid of our satellite and just use the internet now for TV. We also recently bought a Blu Ra player that came with 3 months free of Hulu and Amazon Prime ...

Hulu is about as worthless as they come and is not worth a penny in my opinion. 5,000 movies about gays and lesbians, and then there's ... well there's, uh, then there's that ... oh wait, that sucks too ... but there's this one show ... well, no, that really sucks too. <--- See where I'm going with this. We've had it activated for 2 weeks now and we've watched 2 shows.

Amazon Prime charges you, on top of their monthly fee, for anything worth while watching. For example ... if you want to watch The Walking Dead (A TV Series on cable) ... $27 bucks per season on top of the $8 dollar a month fee. That's half of your cable bill in one show. Want to watch a classic movie you haven't been able to find on DVD or Blu Ra ... another $5 ~ $10 bucks and some ... you have to 'buy' (which means you can watch it an unlimited amount of times for ever) ... that's $15 ~ $20 bucks ... on top of your monthly subscription.

It's all a complete and total rip off.

You actually are better off sticking with cable or satellite, but the good thing about this little adventure we embarked on is, it broke my addiction to TV. It could go in the basement in storage now to never be seen again and I wouldn't miss it one bit.