>In fact, I'm not sure people even remember that one of the original propositions of cable was that it was ad free. That's mostly a myth. The original purpose

>In fact, I'm not sure people even remember that one of the original propositions of cable was that it was ad free. That's mostly a myth. The original purpose of cable was to get TV signal in areas where broadcast didn't go. The first basic cable channels were TBS--which had advertisements--and Christian Broadcast Network--which probably didn't. The unfiltered cable stations, for the most part, had advertisements. You are likely remembering HBO, Cinemax, The Movie Channel advertisements. They didn't have advertisements because you had to pay per channel.