In this country we're blessed with All 4, which gives us unlimited access to the shows from all Channel 4 TV channels. I love its free-to-air video-on-demand service. It is really a joy: I'm currently puzzling my way through a very dark Croatian spy series called Guardian of the Castle. I really love watching it.
The only downside of All 4 is that the film or the show stops every 15 or so minutes and some ads appear. And here's the thing: you cannot fast-forward them! It's incredibly annoying.
As a kid, I used to like watching ads on TV; I think I even started recording them. I remember asking my confused parents if they used a particular oven cleaner, which was called something like the oven pad. It was because in the ad there was a nice cartoon face on the oven cleaner. I fell out of love with ads after an art lesson in middle school. My art teacher, Mr. Courts, said something about them just being a way of getting us to buy things we didn't really want or need. He had a point. I never felt the same way about them again.
Now, it is very painful for me to watch them in the middle of an exciting Croatian spy series. During the three ad breaks, I forced myself to sit through the other night. There was a Lloyds Bank ad featuring a black horse racing alongside delighted people to the sound of a Carpenters track. It made me want Io tie my TV to the tail of a galloping (飞驰的) horse, so I could never watch anything of the sort ever again. However, on the other hand, I know that All 4 offers free service just because it makes profits from ads. As a big fan of All 4, I have to get rid of my dissatisfaction and tolerate its downside since it really offers me films and shows I like.
