Long commercial blocks...

[Francisque]

Even crazier

Moreover, why having so many ads late at night..I mean, rightly so, many European channels don't have ads at late night (or don't have many of them)

More or less the same as in Portugal, usually around twelve to fifteen minutes. When I went to Barcelona in 2015, a break on Cuatro seemed endless.

They're longer, but they're also are less frequent than in countries like the US

In Italy it seems they're not so long, in general

I think the best "balance" is in a country like the UK; more-half hour based schedule, mid-length ad breaks, sensible rules saying how many internal ad breaks can have a show of a certain length, and still 12 minutes per hour of ads as EU rules dictate

 

[RandomMe]

Honestly I wish Europe adopted the "old" American format of having two or three minute long breaks every seven minutes or so.

 

[Francisque]

Honestly I wish Europe adopted the "old" American format of having two or three minute long breaks every seven minutes or so.

Every seven minutes? That would be too much

Similarly to British rules, I'd appreciate such a "international" standard

- 12 minutes of advertising or teleshopping breaks per hour on all channels (promos, bumpers, stings, ident not counted as adverts)
- Children's programmes shorter than 30 minutes must not be interrupted by advertising or teleshopping breaks
- The transmission of films,news and children programmes should be interrupted by advertising or teleshopping only once for each scheduled period of at least 30 minutes
- Where television advertising or teleshopping is inserted during programmes, television broadcasters must ensure that the integrity of the programme is not prejudiced, having regard to the nature and duration of the programme, and where natural breaks occur.
- Programmes including a religious service or parliamentary proceeding may not include advertising or teleshopping breaks
- Scheduled number of breaks according to the length of the slot
(i) Number of breaks
21 – 44 minutes > One
45 – 54 minutes > Two
55 – 65 minutes > Three
66 – 85 minutes > Four
86 – 105 minutes > Five
106 – 125 minutes > Six

- Some slightly stricter rules for public channels