Straw Walker said:
Many of the commercial channels now seem to pad out the adverts with 'in house' previews to increase the break length up to five minutes. :x
I once timed the adverts/breaks during a CSI programme, as I was becomming increasingly annoyed that the channel would show the opening 5 minutes of the programme, and then - before the opening credits had rolled - go to an ad break.
Considering that the programme is listed as being on the screen for an hour, I timed the programme as actually only lasting for 38 minutes. The resulting 22 minutes were promos and adverts.
I did complain as the maximum amount of advertising permitted in an hour is 14 minutes, but the 8 minutes 'over-run' was classed as 'promotion of forthcoming programmes'. Which to me is nothing more than another name for an advert!