It may be my memory but it seems that TV commericals have been getting longer and longer as compared to a decade ago. It would be very interesting to see a plot of the length of the average commercial break over the past few decades - I think we'll see that the length of the average commercial break has drastically increased.

In addition, it seems as if there are no commerical breaks between consecutive TV shows anymore. Clearly this is a way to keep us from turning off the TV and doing something productive with our lives.

Does anyone have any thoughts?