How long will it be before all channels look like CNN, with the show in a little box in the middle of the screen, and a constant crawl of advertisements everywhere else?

Hello?! The problem is we get the in-program ads AND the bugs and commercials. So basically it doesn't matter when you tune in, you will be blanketed with ads.

Hello, duh! Everything costs more now. You remember when a Coke -- in a glass bottle -- used to cost a nickel? How about the outrage at having to pay over a dollar for a gallon of gas?

Sure programs cost more. They are also extracting more commercial time out of an hour than "back in the day," when there would be 3 to 4 breaks an hour and the program totaled over 50 minutes.

The problem is, the nets haven’t the balls to charge what they need for a minute of advertising, so they take the difference out on us.

I don’t see why we should have to pay for beancounter incompetence.

Good point. You don't pay for local TV, but if you're a dish or cable subscriber you should be pissed. All the extra revenue they make/save by these bugs and they still charge full price for the use of the sat/cable.

How much of the cost of your cable subscription is passed on to the networks?

I did a report on this in college, which was a few years ago, but at the time it was not much.

I'll ask it again: How are television networks supposed to make money? All I see here is a lot of bitching and people wanting everything for "free."

P.S. PVRs are more common than you all think. Maybe everyone doesn't have a Tivo, but the cable companies offer PVR-type units as well.