[SoftTalker]

> Why is it not possible to pay for this version of the stream?

Because they want both your money and ad money.

I don't know why people ever accepted advertising on pay cable TV. Pay to watch ads?

Ads made sense on over-the-air broadcast because there was no way to earn revenue from that other than a BBC-style "license" tax that wouldn't really fly in the US (though we do have NPR so...)