Do people still watch "live TV" with commercials as they air on television?

[CyberCubed]

I was just wondering if people still do this. I don't think I've ever watched a show on regular TV with commercials when a show was airing since...I dunno maybe 2010?

Everything I watch is either something that was recorded (although I don't do that anymore), or is just streamed online that I can catch later. I'm surprised if people still sit through "live TV" with commercials and watch television as if it's still 1995 or something.

I haven't sat through a commercial in about 10+ years. I don't even know what commercials are like anymore.

[sdp]

I haven't since 2006 when I built my home theater PC way before it was cool and easy to do.

[Autbot_Benz]

i do 4 times a week

[Icebot]

I don’t think I have since maybe 2014 or 2015. Unless, I see ads on live twitch videos and also when I watch YouTube, do those count as commercials?

I’ve been watching YouTube videos that are old kid commercials from the 1990’s, I’ve been enjoying them and they bring back memories!

[frank_one]

I still do but I usually get tired very quickly and turn off the tv before the show I'm watching is over. Commercials kill my interest.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Only when it comes to sports.

[ssjup81]

Yes, I do in the evenings when watching the news, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy. On Saturdays, I sometimes watch MeTV with my folks. Sunday mornings, my mother watches one of those news shows. Not Meet the Press, but the other one that Chris Christie would usually be on. During the fall, football is usually watched on TV.

[mrmaczaps]

Sometimes but I use commercial breaks for bio breaks or setting off some easily triggered types online. Its all good.

[sdp]

ads have to be from hell, just imagine by the time you die all the ads you must've watched on television. luckily for me that ended in my teens but imagine those boomers who had ads on their tv all their life or most of their life or more than 20 years. That must be a sad existence, you likely spent years of your life watching ads.

What's worse is that some people actually look up those ads on youtube, they watched them so many times they think they actually like them. It's like god damn Stockholm syndrome. They think they actually like them.

Hell new generations are growing up with ads on youtube? Thank god I don't deal with that either, I can only imagine, the few times I've dealt with it those 30 seconds feel forever, thank god they don't show up for me 95% of the time. I can't even imagine how i watched stuff with 3 minute commercial breaks.

[CyberCubed]

Yes, I do in the evenings when watching the news, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy.

Watching those 3 things is basically what middle age people do. I will never watch the news, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, or 20/20 with Barbara Walters. It's a sure sign of people "getting up there" in the years.

[Wildcat]

I do for whatever I put on throughout the day or at night before bed. Of course I pause it when I need to get up and do something. I want to watch my favorite shows without interruption so I record those.

YouTube has too many ads. I know they’re quick but it’s the principle of the thing when it didn’t used to have any. Well rarely. I know it was bound to happen once it became huge and after google took over.

I always skip them if I can. I usually just refresh the page and the video restarts without it. Which is odd because how does refreshing void the ad? At least it works but some videos have ads in the middle.

It’s not often I complain about something but I think YouTube ads are bull. I get why really popular channels and content have them but seemingly ALL videos have ads. There’s no reason for it.

[Andrew NDB]

No, never. And I haven't watched "TV" in ages.

[Autbot_Benz]

I do for whatever I put on throughout the day or at night before bed. Of course I pause it when I need to get up and do something. I want to watch my favorite shows without interruption so I record those.

YouTube has too many ads. I know they’re quick but it’s the principle of the thing when it didn’t used to have any. Well rarely. I know it was bound to happen once it became huge and after google took over.

I always skip them if I can. I usually just refresh the page and the video restarts without it. Which is odd because how does refreshing void the ad? At least it works but some videos have ads in the middle.

It’s not often I complain about something but I think YouTube ads are bull. I get why really popular channels and content have them but seemingly ALL videos have ads. There’s no reason for it.

Get Adblocker or U-block origin for your computer you will never see another youtube ad ever again. I think there is one for tablet too.

[Wildcat]

Get Adblocker or U-block origin for your computer you will never see another youtube ad ever again. I think there is one for tablet too.I don’t know why I’ve never tried but I see Adblocker is on the Apple Store. I also have a ChromeBook. I’ll check that out too.

I guess I’m pretty tolerant except for the kind that spam the page. I’ve just had it with YouTube. Especially because, for whatever reason on the iPad, they freeze the video and I have to start over.

It’s an older model but I only have that problem with YouTube.

[Autbot_Benz]

I don’t know why I’ve never tried but I see Adblocker is on the Apple Store. I also have a ChromeBook. I’ll check that out too.

I guess I’m pretty tolerant except for the kind that spam the page. I’ve just had it with YouTube. Especially because, for whatever reason on the iPad, they freeze the video and I have to start over.

It’s an older model but I only have that problem with YouTube.

I have a chromebook too and I use U-block origin I never see ads on youtube its the way to go https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm?hl=en

[ABrown]

Yes. While I have switched from cable to streaming services, I still get live television through my Hulu stream. And I refuse to give that up.

[ssjup81]

Watching those 3 things is basically what middle age people do. I will never watch the news, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, or 20/20 with Barbara Walters. It's a sure sign of people "getting up there" in the years.Barbara Walters hasn't hosted 20/20 in years. It also comes on Friday nights. It's weird, though. If you would have told me 20 years ago that 20/20 would air at 9pm on Fridays, I would've said you were joking. TGIF and all that, but not like much interesting programming is on, so it airs from 9 - 11 now as opposed to 10 - 11. I don't watch that in real time. I can watch that on Saturday or some other day and fast forward through the ads, if it's an interesting story. I like crime stories and cases, so those are the ones I tend to watch.

I've been watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy since the 80s and still enjoy it. Not a "middle-age" thing, it's an "enjoyment" thing. Our area doesn't show the local ABC show airings through Hulu anymore where you can watch at a later time, which is the only paid streaming service we have (aside from Disney +, but that's bundled and I only watched it for the Mandalorian and now Loki). The only way I can watch those is in real time. Evening news is local along with the 6:30 news. I watch for that and have for years. Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy air at different times depending on the area. So I can either watch using the antennae or through Hulu Live.

[Roseangelo]

I quit watching live TV in 2018, although it feels longer ago.

It wasn't even a statement against commercials or anything. I hit a really low point due to the unexpected loss of my rabbit and just turned everything off. I binged every Star Trek series for like six months and just never turned regular TV back on.

The key motivating factor for me to keep it off is that, I think like many people, I would just have it on to have it on. So I would end up watching so much stupid crap that I really didn't like. And if the news was on I'd be watching that, and all that was was people yelling at each about Trump being president. I just didn't need it anymore.

So now I either pick something to watch on streaming or watch nothing.

[CyberCubed]

I still remember the days of watching new shows and having to deal with rerun breaks for months at a time before the next new episode, and then of course the summer breaks when a season ended.

Nowadays I prefer to wait till a show ends so I can watch it as a whole with no breaks, and also by the time a show ends you get a general consensus from the fandom whether the show as a whole was worth watching, or if it went downhill in the later seasons, or so forth.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

We watch MeTV or Comet at night, which are both mostly older shows we enjoyed growing up or in our early adult years. Comet does the cool scifi shows like Sliders, Quantum Leap, X Files, etc, and MeTV has older stuff, like Buck Rodgers, Star Trek (OG series), Lost in Space, and Kolchak, and Svengoolie. We sometimes watch the news, but it's just annoying anymore, and the regular stations don't have much on that we even like with new shows, so we rarely watch them.

[ssjup81]

We watch MeTV or Comet at night, which are both mostly older shows we enjoyed growing up or in our early adult years. Comet does the cool scifi shows like Sliders, Quantum Leap, X Files, etc, and MeTV has older stuff, like Buck Rodgers, Star Trek (OG series), Lost in Space, and Kolchak, and Svengoolie. We sometimes watch the news, but it's just annoying anymore, and the regular stations don't have much on that we even like with new shows, so we rarely watch them.We watch Svengoolie sometimes. I like it. The movies are terrible and Mystery Science Theater worthy of riffing, but I actually like Svengoolie and the information he'll give about the actors and the corny jokes. Sometimes we may watch Comet. Watched Quantum Leap through it. I saw it sometimes as a kid, but finally saw it in almost its entirety last year. Same with Sliders. I watched it up to a point when it originally aired, but finally saw more episodes after the brother showed up (forgot his name). I'd stopped watching regularly back then after Jerry left. Interesting seeing the final episode of it.

[MrPliggins]

Sometimes I'll sit and flip channels for a bit, but I very seldom watch anything in its entirety before flipping away.

[CyberCubed]

Do people still channel surf? Back in the 90's nobody knew what was on TV unless you had TVGuide (my parents had a subscription so they always had that book every week), and you just turned on the TV to see whatever was on.

Nowadays due to the internet everyone can easily look up when a show is airing or what type of shows are airing, but there's like no reason to just flip through channels anymore. There's like 500+ channels and nothing good on most of the time.

[MrPliggins]

I only have a digital antenna, not 500+ channels, more like 10. I suppose I could look up shows, but I don’t care enough to plan it out like that. Usually I do it when I’m waiting on someone or something, just to kill time.

[Leo656]

We just mute the commercials, or if it's on DVR we fast-forward through them. This really isn't that big a deal.

[Prowler]

Personally I only do it when there's a live football match on terrestrial TV. Sadly more and more football matches air in paid subscription channels. I don't subscribe to any of those.

So mostly during the Euro, World Cup and some Chanpions League and Europa League matches if my club is playing.

There's only one break during football matches anyway. 15 minutes between the first and second halves. So it's not like I get that many commercials.

Now, the last time I watched a movie or a TV show on TV?! I don't remember. Couldn't even tell you when they air anymore. I just watch stuff on phone or the computer nowadays. And it's been that way for a over a decade.

[superstaff]

We watch Svengoolie sometimes. I like it. The movies are terrible and Mystery Science Theater worthy of riffing, but I actually like Svengoolie and the information he'll give about the actors and the corny jokes. Sometimes we may watch Comet. Watched Quantum Leap through it. I saw it sometimes as a kid, but finally saw it in almost its entirety last year. Same with Sliders. I watched it up to a point when it originally aired, but finally saw more episodes after the brother showed up (forgot his name). I'd stopped watching regularly back then after Jerry left. Interesting seeing the final episode of it.

Me too. I've been watching lots of stuff on MeTV lately, including Svengoolie, Sventoonie, Toon in with Me, Batman (1966), Star Trek, etc. Love it.

And yeah, I still watch live TV with commercials. Prefer it that way. :P