Not the US, but in Bolivia in the late 90s cable was essentially ad free. My favorite channel was "The Sony Channel", they had stuff like Dawson's Creek (don't

Not the US, but in Bolivia in the late 90s cable was essentially ad free. My favorite channel was "The Sony Channel", they had stuff like Dawson's Creek (don't judge!) and Seinfeld ad free. Because those shows had spots for commercial breaks they stuck music videos in between. Ok, maybe that isn't completely ad free, the music videos were essentially ads for Sony's music artists, but it was better than regular commercials.