[mythtv] Commercial replacement instead of skipping

[Michael T. Dean]

On 02/27/2007 03:57 PM, Joshua Thompson wrote:
> On 2/27/07, Brad DerManouelian <myth at dermanouelian.com> wrote:
>> Commercial flagging does not work in real time. Given the nature of
>> it, I can't imagine it ever will. The simple work-around to this
>> problem is to watch LiveTV delayed for about 15-20 (or more depending
>> on the length of your show) minutes so the commflag can do its thing
>> and you'll miss the commercials that way.
>>
> As a rule of thumb you need to be behind by 8 minutes for every 30 
> minutes
> of air time in order to avoid all the commercials, at least in the US. 
> It's
> not an exact science of course but it works well for me. 

I'm pretty sure you'll never see more than 42 minutes of content in any 
recently-produced 1-hour primetime show--meaning 9 minutes of 
commercials per 30 minutes of air time (based on info from a USA Today 
article--I know, not a great source, but better than a WAG--see 
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2005-10-11-ad-glut_x.htm).  
Oh, and that 42-minutes includes recaps and teasers.  And, as more and 
more producers are bowing to the networks' pressure to have 6 shorter 
breaks per hour instead of 4, the amount of content left after 
commercials is declining.  (The new shorter breaks tend to average more 
than 2/3 the length of the old breaks.)

Mike