TCM put an ad break in the middle of the Bullitt car chase

[Adrian W]

You couldn’t make it up

Can anyone think of a worse one than that

[InitialDave]

Adrian W said:

You couldn’t make it up

Can anyone think of a worse one than that

An ad break? Probably not.

But I remember ITV editing Die Hard 3 to fit a time slot, and deleting fairly important plot elements.

[Dracoro]

I remember watching the F1 about 20 (?) years ago on C4 when was about 3 laps to go, and two drivers (Alonso/Schumacher was it?) all over each other fighting for 2nd place.

What a climax to the race, what will happen.

C4 decides to go to ad break. WTF!

[Eric Mc]

Sure it was Channel 4?

[Smiljan]

It was ITV wasn't it. Just googled - Imola 2005! Where the heck did all those years go?

[otherman]

I can remember the BBC breaking the last lap of an F1 to go to 'an exciting development in the cricket' and cue an hour of nothing much happening at Edgebaston.

[TCEvo]

Vaguely recall ITV (4 I assume) cutting to ads just as the first alien shot's been fired & is about to destroy the White House in (can't remember what it's called) Will Smith disaster movie.

I think ads are done on a regular timed basis, hence there's no commonsense applied but anyone at the TV channel - generally makes movies all but unwatchable on commercial TV now.

[Evercross]

Smiljan said:

It was ITV wasn't it. Just googled - Imola 2005! Where the heck did all those years go?

Ah yes, back when ITV had the F1 coverage. Sunday afternoons were when the Coronation Street omnibus was on, and when a race would overrun the large graphic "Coronation Street follows shortly" would be overlaid on the screen, which led to some wag creating a patch for the Grand Prix 3 F1 PC game of the period that would randomly flash the ITV apology during the last five minutes of a race.

[anonymous-user]

TCEvo said:

Vaguely recall ITV (4 I assume) cutting to ads just as the first alien shot's been fired & is about to destroy the White House in (can't remember what it's called) Will Smith disaster movie.

All his movies are a disaster.

[ShinyPsyduck]

DrBrule said:

All his movies are a disaster.

Partially true. Watch 7 degrees of separation, it was his first movie role.

[Munter]

TCEvo said:

I think ads are done on a regular timed basis, hence there's no commonsense applied but anyone at the TV channel - generally makes movies all but unwatchable on commercial TV now.

Actually no. The ads specifically should be "sympathetically" introduced into the programming. There are rules on the length of adverts in an hour, and the minimum time between ad breaks. So they can push them around a bit to fit into the show.

Typically they have lots of ads near the end after you are invested in something, with nice big gaps near the start so as not to piss you off.