Before cable TV, television was free for viewers and paid for by advertisers. Today, viewers pay cable companies directly, but there are still ads. How are they getting away with this?

If you pay for a newspaper, you get ads. If you pay for a magazine, you get ads. Get a TiVo, I see almost no ads.

Your cable bill pays for several things 1 delivering a  collection of signals, from over the air and free sources 2 paying for some premium channels, like Disney. Some of these channels have ads and some don't. When you buy a magazine at a newsstand or buy subscription, you may notice that they have advertisements in the magazine. >>>> The companies that own the rights to the programs, and the companies that deliver a signal to your house, can arrange to get paid anyway they can. Cable systems can also put their own ads into certain programs, many if the local ads are sold this way.

Television is still free and supported by advertisers.  That hasn't changed. Get an antenna and enjoy beautiful HD channels without any monthly subscription! If you don't want to be inconvenienced by setting up an antenna, or you can't get a signal at your house, or if you desire more channels than ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and PBS - then you're going to pay.

That is just the beginning. CNN has just rigged it so that you cannot fast forward and avoid commercials. 30 days ago on Time-Warner they introduced a "service" that takes you back to the beginning of the show. Now you cannot skip commercials. On CNN, and most On Demand channels. Faced with dwindling TV viewership, their solution is more ads and making it harder for you to avoid these ads. DirecTV has a remote that makes it hard to skip commercials.THis diabolical device was introduced by Rupert Murdoch the instant he purchased DirecTV, together with getting rid of the Tivo built into DirecTV boxes. Tivo and Dish are your only hope of avoiding commercial. Short of getting rid of TV entirely.

To make great content requires funding from subscriptions, TV advertising and internet advertising. The incremental revenue from the ads online, are only enough to support the incremental costs of hosting the content ( that's already been paid for by the other two revenue streams ) online ( and perhaps a little more money to make it worth it)

I don't ;-)I cut the cord with cable in 2006 and never looked back.TV is supposed to be enjoyable but was literally a headache. Every commercial break would play at a drastically louder volume as it interrupted what I wanted to watch. Also, the one channel I actually care to watch (SpeedTV) gradually shifted away from showing live coverage of racing events around the world and became like all the rest, plugging the airwaves with talk shows and reality tv.Now I happily enjoy commercial free CBC radio, commercial free Netflix video, and commercial free Apple Music all for FAR LESS than I would pay for cable TV.The same goes for news. Rather than reading a newspaper that has 80-90% advertisements and a smattering of articles, I enjoy the relatively add free apps from Vancouver Sun, CNN, and CTV News. If cable was free of charge and free of commercials, I would not switch back at this point. Cheers,Jon

A cable provider is one thing, a television channel is another.You are paying cable providers for access to aggregated broadcasts you couldn't reach through a traditional antenna. Channels put up ads because that's how they fund their content. For example, Fox is (in part) able to create original content because of the ads they run on their network of various channels, and that's also how they're able to purchase series and buy movie licenses.

The cost of cable subscription will be far greater if it had to become completely ad-free. Something similar which holds true for newspapers and magazines.

Why? Nobody works for free.And…most people pay for Internet service (wireless provider and/or home Internet provider)It wasn't always like this. Let's look at entertainment consumption (advertising model) over time.Evolution over time.Beginning of TV. In the US, several societal factors existed that contributed to the popularity of TV in the early days: TV was once a technological advancement over radio programming. TV was free (due to commercials). TV was one of only a few entertainment options easily available to the general public. The novelty of the new format and scarcity of other available entertainment options drove demand. Viewers accepted (and often enjoyed) commercials because they were new and allowed television to be free. Skip ahead to the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. By this time market saturation has reached its zenith. Viewers are paying for subscription. But now, the novelty has worn off. Remote controls, DVRs, the internet and other technologies are eroding the visibility of commercials.Present day.On-demand video, streaming services, YouTube, social media, a proliferation of video games and countless other entertainment options are now vying for viewers attention. While consumers invest even more hours watching entertainment, they spend less time watching ads.TV revenue trends over time: Trajectory.As more entertainment content is readily accessible by viewers, the efficacy of traditional commercials are being measured against the efficacy of native brand integration. Especially when considering the cost of production and media spending.Growth of commercial free content. As viewers have access to more entertainment like Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, YouTube and other VOD services more people continue to cut the cord on linear interruptive commercial based content.Native brand integration. To offset production and marketing expenses many content creators are utilizing native brand integration. Likewise, brands find this as a positive ROI, and more effective due to visibility and influence.Trajectory of entertainment model by analyzing change in consumption. Summary.Audiences continue to seek quality entertainment. Entertainment creators wish offset expenses. Brands are interested in greater visibility.Solution: Native brand integration.Tech companies like https://www.hollyfy.com/about/ use aggregated sourcing, alignment algorithms and data tools to simplify the process.Linkshttp://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/247581/time-shifted-tv-is-the-default.htmlhttp://www.businessinsider.com/decline-of-us-tv-subscribers-2015-4