On Advertising
There aren’t as many TV channels in the UK. Cable TV is almost ubiquitous over here, which almost guarantees a minimum of around 12 channels (I think). In the UK, your basic TV + aerial will net you 5 channels. Two of those are public channels, funded by the government2, and as such do not broadcast adverts.
The BBC(channels 1 and 2) is not funded by the government, but by payment of a television licence by every member of the British public that wishes to own and operate a TV. The reason that the BBC does not show commercials is because they are supposed to be held at the behest of the viewing(and paying) audience, rather than advertisers. I think it’s an important cultural difference that our first(and flagship) TV station was designed as a public service.
Of course, the BBC has gone to the dogs with the advent of digital tv and a subsequent dumbing down that has turned me into one of those sneering elitists who say “I don’t actually own a television”.
Secondly, British advertising is strictly regulated. I can’t seem to find anything on Google to corroborate this, but the rule certainly used to be that only 6 minutes of advertising was allowed per hour. They may have relaxed the rules since I last read that, but I’m sure a rule like that still exists, even if I can’t find any corroborating evidence right now.
Ofcom, the regulator, currently allows 12 minutes of adverts per hour, although the average is much lower. They are thinking about changing the rules.
