[laumars]

You do realise that Sky offers a number of services that allow viewers to skip those adds entirely: fast forwarding in a a few different modes (live buffers or previously recorded shows like any conventional DVR) as well as advertless shows on Anytime?

Barring the odd show that demands real-time viewing (eg sports matches) most people I know deliberately watch their shows 15/20 minutes later from the Sky+ DVR just fast forward adverts.

However even without such features, many people just channel hop or walk out of the room to make a cup of tea / go to the toilet.

Then to top all that off, most people have become desensitised to adverts on TV; we avoid making purchasing decisions based upon then and even learn to block adverts out entirely.

The practical upshot of all this is adverts on TV have now become about as effective a marketing tool as ads on the internet.