I'll leave the political slant to Hot Topics forum but in general I just can't believe that we are going to be subject to this from now on for almost a year to come. Did we not just get over this?? And the survey phone calls. Reminds me of how I feel about the stores stocking up on Christmas stuff in August already. I do love the fact that PBS has no commercial ads except for the particular shows that have their own sponsors, but they are constantly begging for money and reminding us that gifts from our IRA account isn't considered to be income, etc., etc. Since a part of my federal taxes help pay for PBS without my input on what they air I feel like I've done my part funding it, thank you very much.

I record many shows and one bonus from Comcast cable is the ability to hit >> and it fast forwards past the commercials. Unfortunately I think it's only available on the 3 major networks.

Exactly ritaweeda! I zone out during commercials & hubby sometimes comments on them...I have NO idea what he's talking about.

At the last house we had a TV in EVERY room...yes, even the bathroom. Hubby used to sit in the jetted tub and watch "The Simpsons" and LAUGH.

I actually joined a gym, at the last house, because it was cheaper to watch HBO/HGTV for $25 a month while I was on the treadmill plus YOGA classes or Zumba or TRX....than it was to pay for cable TV /All access at my home. lol True story!

Once, DH was building a Jimmy Johns /fast food place in Glenwood Springs. His company paid for the two for us to go there and WORK for a week ....ALL expenses paid. Hotel had an olympic indoor pool "and" outdoor pool, sauna, jacuzzi, workout room.....running trail next to the mountain creek. ALL kinds of things to do and see....and I spent the majority of MY time watching HGTV!

During the day I rarely watch TV. I might watch a Bloomberg Market Minute. I have a TV in the kitchen to watch while I'm cooking.

yes, i do zone out, unless its something that captures my attention! some are really funny! or i channel surf during the commercials

but most of the time DVR my shows and zip through the commercials or if don't DVR something, i watch On Demand.

I don’t zone out, I record everything so I can skip them completely. If we just “find” something, I stop the DVR and let it record 10-15 minutes to earn time so I can still skip them.

And not only did the industry promise no commercials, (especially services like Hulu) and break that promise, often times channels we like to watch place longer infomercials the middle of shows which is irritating too. There are certain commercials like the drug commercials that dominate most of the shows we watch and I literally can’t stand to listen to them. I resent that instead of allowing a doctor to figure out what’s needed, the drug companies are drug peddling on tv.

As for the political commercials, because of what happened in 2016 and the threats of misinformation now, sometimes out of curiosity I’ll stop to see what’s being said, but usually i pass through those too.

The majority of those survey, polling and every other kind of unwanted callers only have our Ooma number so we know it’s an unwanted call when the phone rings. If the same number calls 2x’s without a leaving a message, I block it. I worked from home on Wednesday and the phone must have rang 8-9 times from the same 3-4 numbers. They were home and wireless numbers and probably pollsters. Blocked blocked and blocked.

I record the shows I like and FF through commercials. DH watches live TV and when I am in the room with him, I notice that his programs have commercials almost exclusively for health care products, senior insurances, stair lifts, canes and RX drugs etc. The channels he watches are geared to senior citizens but I find the commercials depressing. I am not a fan of cowboy movies anyway.

I am also a recorder and Fast-forwareder.

Occasionally, I find myself trying to FF through something I've not recorded. LOL

I watch a lot of TV...some seriously, some with my mind somewhere else. Usually, I will remember some of the "cuteness" in a commercial, but won't

even remember what it was for. I'm not the one for Marketers to ask questions.

If there is music/songs involved, I will find myself humming it for hours, but

haven't a clue what the ad was about.

The US is the only first world nation that does not ban advertising for *prescription* drugs. (I *think* New Zealand has wised up.) These obnoxious ads are one reason our meds are so ridiculously expensive. Big Pharma is allowed to deduct advertising as an expense when setting prices. Americans also pay more to help Big Pharma make up for charging less for the same meds in other nations where prices are controled.

There is a constant deluge of 'new, improved' meds that, when you look at the trials, are a meaninglessly small improvement over existing meds -- sometimes merely the 4% error factor that exists in such trials.

I am seeing more frequent and shorter TV ads for all kinds of things where the visual content (flowers, puppies, laughing children, whatever) has zero relationship to the product advertised. Are Americans the most gullible people on earth?

I tend to watch streaming services rather than network TV so I don't see a lot of commercials. And I must be pretty good at filtering out those I do as I seem to have no recollection of them at all......with the exception of all those zillions of Medicare supplemental insurance enrollment that pop up every two minutes right now!! They are very annoying.

I will say that if someone was encouraging me to buy something, advertising on TV would be a completely wasted effort!!

If anything the RX commercials would steer me away from that drug. The possible side effects sound MUCH worse than the original condition.

We record almost everything we watch on TV, even the evening network news. It is amazing how little time is devoted to "news" on the network news once you take out all the commercials. DH will even record just enough of a game on TV to be able to FF through all the commercials.

A one hour show has 20 minutes of commercials. IF DH and I watch a series together, it has to be recorded.

It depends, sometimes I watch, sometimes I ignore. The Subaru commercials with the dogs - those I always watch. There is a really sweet commercial right now from my electric company, Dominion Energy. A little girl wears the Dominion Energy baseball cap of her father while he is deployed in the military. But they have run it so often, I want to throw a shoe at the TV when it comes on.

And yes, why do some people who don't watch TV tend to reply just to let us know that? I see it often here.

And while I am here venting . . . I hope this vaping issue gets resolved soon. Any time there are smoking-type news reports, the videos with them are extreme closeups of people smoking. It's disgusting.

We always MUTE commercials!

I often use commercials as a time to do something else, whether that's use the bathroom, get a snack, perform some small task or use the tablet that's in my lap. Rarely, do I sit through a commercial. The only ones that grab my attention lately are the Mayhem commercials (I think they are funny), but darned if I can tell you which insurance company they are for!

And, yes, when I do sit through commercials, I usually do zone out and start thinking about something else like what I have to do the following day or whatever thing is currently occupying space in my head.

We record the vast majority of the programs we watch so we can zoom past commercials. We too do watch the Subaru Barkley dogs commercials and a few others that have cute animals in them.

I tend to zone out when we are forced to watch commercials.

I keep the remote very close and mute them as much as I can

I remember the good old days when there was a commercial break at the half-hour mark and then again at the end of the show. I record everything we watch and then watch and fast forward through commercials. The only time I ever see commercials is when we're watching the kitchen TV while we're eating and then I switch between CNN and MSNBC every time one runs a commercial. ..I watch the evening news at the gym sometimes and all of the big three start the news with almost a five minute summary of what 's to come and then no commercials for 15 minutes and then the last 15 have two minutes of news, three minutes of commercials. I also flip the channel then too. And they wonder why streaming is so popular. The big three will soon be gone or way differently run. ABC, NBC CBS.

We record just about 100% of what we watch, so I never see commercials.

We ff thru most commercials. Like many already said, we use the trick of letting the program get 10 or 15 minutes ahead so we can ff through "almost live" tv. As I age, I find it easier and easier to tune out the program itself as well as the commercials. LOL.

I tend to read during the commercials or, as noted above, go to the bathroom, pat a cat, come here :). A couple of years ago it become no longer allowed for advertisers to increase the volume on their ads so we no longer get blasted out of our seats when an ad comes on.

I never watch commercials. Tape everything and FF. You can watch an entire football game in about 20 min. Of course, all the drama is gone but you still find out the outcome pretty fast. DH watches in real time and gets all the commercials. He often asks me if I've seen thus and such. The answer would be no

I use YouTube TV,a streaming service and they tend to run the same commercials over and over and over. I tend to change the channel when a commercial comes on. If THAT channel has commercials, I change it back and just wait it out. I watch more TV than I should probably,but it's how I relax. So I don't feel bad about it.

Back when commercials were run at high volume, we got in the habit of muting them. We still do it, just by reflex. It drives my boss batty, that I never know what commercials are on. She'll be describing some cute ad, and I must just have a blank look on my face. One time she actually said "don't you ever see commercials?" Well, no.

I refuse to sit through commercials. Record and FF for me! ;)

I watch TV most evenings, never in the daytime. Half the time, I fall asleep while watching. I totally missed Blue Bloods last night - remember changing to the channel and then next thing I knew, it was the ending. Oh well...

I pay little attention to commercials unless they annoy me. Unfortunately my younger dog does and he has hearing that is quite acute. He's also an "alarm baker". That commercial with the asian couple burning the dinner and the smoke alarm goes off, sets him off, too. Hate that commercial...

During commercials is when I cruise GardenWeb!

Yes Ritaweeda, I too remember when we were told if we paid for cable, there would be no commercials. When I say that, younger people look at me like I have two heads. Now, not only are we inundated with commercials, we have all the trailers of upcoming shows and repeat programming within the same program to contend with. It seems the actual programming is becoming less and less. That is frustrating and certainly not for the benefit of the viewer.

I watch TV for fun, education, information.... I try to record and fast forward through commercials. Barring that, I change clothes, use the restroom, etc. I don't zone out, but do. If that makes sense. I ain't listening, if that counts.

I, too, watch TV for fun, education, and information. The shows I really like are set to record in case something comes up that I miss it. I often fast forward through commercials when watching recorded programs. And I, too, have occasionally found myself trying to fast forward through a commercial during an unrecorded show. LOL. There are some that I mute, one local lawyer in particular, also one local car dealer. Mostly I just ignore, or channel surf, take a 'potty break', crochet, etc. Can't say as I 'zone out', exactly but they don't really register with me. Actually some have made me determined never to use a particular product or service.

Rusty

I don’t mind the commercials as that’s when I get other stuff done.

I record most of what we watch, but we also watch shows using our antenna that the cable service neglects to provide for us. Last week-end I discovered that we get a "Surf" channel from our antenna - all surf, all the time, complete with surf music, which I like. I haven't seen any commercials on that channel, but that might change, as I think it is a new channel. We get three times as many PBS channels through our antenna as we do through cable, and I watch a lot of those - except for the Kids channels.

I mute all commercials that I cannot FF through. I remember back in the 1950s and early 1960s when commercials used to be entertaining, especially the ones for Jax Beer: