Brighthouse used to do this ALL THE TIME with BBC America. They'd be showing a special featurette for one of their shows (Torchwood, Dr. who, etc) between the segments and with out fail it would always be preempted by one of the Brighthouse ads. Then when it was over, we'd missed the special feature.

Since you're mostly paying to watch commercials, eliminating other programming is is an improvement in service.

Comcast did this to me once last year during Monday Night Football.

Typical Comcast, overbooking the commercial space to the point where they forced themselves to have to run the network commercials and the local commercials, cutting in to the shows time, to meet the needs of the advertising contract.

I have noticed that networks replace nationally broadcast ads with local ones. I suspect the problem with the OP, is that comcast's timing is off, and instead of overlaying the local ads on top of the national ones (which Verizon FIOS does all the time), the timing is screwed on the system and its overlaying them on the show..

More shrink ray on TV content. It is way too frustrating to watch even normal TV now a days - and you can forget about the cable channels that they CHARGE for that have much more. You would think a lower amount of commercials would result in more people actually watching them and they would have more impact, thus increasing their value.

I watch so many shows from a DVR or Netflix or HULU now. I realize in this case a DVR wouldn't even help.

Remember when the attraction of cable was the absence of commercials? Now, a tiny segment of the day, not given over to infomercials, 'paid programming' or evangelical extortion still has on-screen corner ads and disruptions, when it isn't butchered to make room for more ads.

The boiling frog routine; we were slowly inured to it over time to where the ridiculousness of it all is taken in stride.

If you want it to stop, cancel your cable. It is, always was and always will be the only way. Most worthy programs are available online anyway.

@axiomatic:

Has there been any proof on the overbooking explanation? I always assumed that was the reason they overlapped commercials by a few seconds but have never seen anything confirming that.

If I was a business owner paying thousands of dollars for a 30 second ad spot and they cut the last 5 seconds off I would be quite angry.

@morlo: LOL what the hell are you talking about?

@Hanshiro: Agreed. Free TV is advertiser supported, but cable companies are paid to deliver content, so they don't get to advertise on my dime. If I see one of these, my next call is to my cable provider. Fortunately I have two in my city, so I can switch.

This used to happen in Oklahoma whenever the D&D cartoon was shown back in the late 80s/early 90s. It wasn't an accident.

Yup. Seen this many times over last spring here in Central Florida.

It was more frequent of Comcast cutting into other commercials than actual programs thankfully. [Ex. Pizza Hut commercial begins and 1 second later it cuts to a local car dealer commercial and ends in the middle of another commercial] Annoying but at least I don't miss my tv show.

@humphrmi: Actually if you are watching a show and this happens and is a local advertiser, tell the advertiser that you do not appreciate them cutting into your viewing.
That should bring it to a screetching halt.
I remember back in the late 80s one of the local channels here in Seattle was showing 'A boy and his Dog'
They really pumped it up as being Don Johnson et al.
They broke for a commercial every 5 minutes I kid you not. I got so discusted I called the channel and told them that I was changing channels because they were ruining the movie. It did not do much to solve the problem but I felt better.

@pattiesmart: in the Network TV and AM/FM radio worlds, the TV shows/music/talk shows are just there as a sort of "carrier" to attach commercials to - if they could get away with a 30-minute block of commercials, they would. (The shows are just there to attract an audience)

Im used to it just overlapping network commercials by a second, but now they are overlapping minutes of television shows while its currently playing.

After a regular commercial break, and the show has resumed, the comcast commercials will then start playing local business commercials.

This is ridiculous.

@gStein: Of course they would, but I'm not paying to watch the commercials. I'm paying to watch the content. I walk away, hit mute, or use TiVo (or similar) to NOT watch the commercials. Or I change the radio station. Everyone does this.

@crimsonfury: This is when people need to start calling and demanding refunds for time lost and/or canceling their service.

I've been saying for a couple of years now that as the bottom of the screen keeps getting filled with more and more promos and crap, it's only a matter of time before TV will be one unbroken series of commercials, and the actual TV show will be down in a little square at the bottom, where the network "bug" is now located.

Not to defend the cable companies, especially Comcast, but the reason these commercials are airing might have something to do with a malfunctioning ad traffic computer - the computer that queues and runs commercials at certain times.

If the commercial break schedule that the network provides to Comcast is incorrect, then the spots run in the wrong time. If a human is involved in manually entering this schedule, which sometimes happens, the error possibilities increase significantly.

There are so many places where this process can go wrong, it's staggering. You see it most often with Comcast and the satellites because they do have the top-level ability to run a commercial over any content the network is providing.

So while it's probably not a deliberate move by Comcast to run more spots and make more money, it boils down to a minimum-wage Comcast employee or two in your market not double-checking their work in the traffic department.

@pattiesmart: I think morlo was being sarcastic...

@jvanbrecht: That's exactly it. Someone in master control might need a flogging or two, but that's all it is, bad timing on their part.

@Smashville: They did it to me, once...

@redskull: Or like youtube, where you have the annoying banners at the bottom of all your films.

@pattiesmart: Not everyone. I stopped paying for cable about 5 years ago. One Dryloop DSL connection = 40 bucks a month. Between adultswim.com, hulu and BitTorrent I get all the tv I want, downloaded, whenever I want to watch it.

In the past month I've seen the entire run of Weeds, which I'd never watched before. Currently grabbing the full run of The Wire.

@squinko: Nice film reference!

God I hate TV anymore. They always cut content out of older shows so that they can play one or two more commercials. Every year the amount of actual viewable content is shortened so that they can squeeze in more commercials.

Plus, consider the fact that I was spending close to 70$ a month and only watching 3 to 4 new shows a week and the rest was reruns for close to four months out of the year. And I missed a number of those shows due to other real life commitments and/or would forget to set the VCR. I was spending about 5$ to watch one episode. I cut my cable umbilical cord and now watch everything I want online via the respected channels website.

The only reason to even have cable anymore is to watch sports (I could care less the score is all I need) or if you do not own a computer. I watch at most five commercials per episode, which is far less than what I was watching on TV. Plus, Now I can afford to go see a movie once in a while.

@humphrmi: I know, but the cable networks actually have more commercials! It is not ALL the cable cos fault in this case. The TV companies could look at the cable cos as providing the service of broadcasting its content for free, but instead they ask for a fee from the cable providers to carry the channels. So they benefit twice, and we get to pay for it AND to watch commercials, we get double billed!

"If you're a Comcast customer and have this problem, we'd encourage you to call Comcast directly and complain."

Um.... yea. That is exactly what the person should do FIRST - call Comcast - tell them what is happening and see if they will fix it.

IF Comcast does not fix it, THEN you start writing The Consumerist & other similar sites to help your cause.

I'm not sure what writing here first will help with the situation.

Call Comcast first and see if they have a solution.

========================
Normal course of things:

1. There is an issue.
2. Talk to people in charge about the issue.
2a. If fixed, then you are done. If not, go to #3
3. If not fixed, then start looking into other means to get the problem fixed, like letter writing & asking folks at The Consumerist for ideas and suggestions.

@crimsonfury: What locality is this happening in?

Slightly off topic (kinda)...
What I find worse, is that often the commercial is for Comcast tv service itself.

Why do they feel the need to advertise the same service you already subscribe to ON THAT SAME SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE. And it's not like it's just station identification either, because the commercials specifically push the sale of their cable service.

Kinda like if while you were driving your car, it would periodically play a recorded message from the manufacturer saying "Drive a <insert_manufacturer's_brand_here>!".
.... I AM dipshit!

I know this has been common for DECADES now, but it's always bugged the hell out of me.

@Oranges w/ Cheese: This might be new to you, but on YouTube at least, you can close those ads as soon as they pop up. Even then, they're only for YouTube Partners, so basically it's the owner's decision to do it.

One of my videos has almost 100k views and still no banned ad.

@G99: The local commercial "overlap" happens here in Northern Virginia. I really wonder why the national advertisers have agreements that let this situation happen. I just don't need to see 10 commercials per hour for Fairfax Hyundai or Koons Ford, but every once in awhile I'll see the last two seconds of a national commercial immediately following one of those, and be somewhat interested in what exactly that covered-up commercial was for.

OTOH, I thought the OP's comment was going to be about Comcast moving the Cartoon Network from analog to digital. No 'toon Network on analog here since late Spring; good thing I don't have any rugrats in the house anymore.

I'm curious how y'all seem to know the fault is Comcast's. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I thought content came from the station, and Comcast just stuck the content into a coax cable for you to plug into the teevee. I'd be surprised if Comcast is altering channels' content, but if that's what's happening, I'd suggest also complaining to the channels whose content Comcast is replacing. They may have some sort of agreement with Comcast regarding what Comcast can (broadcast) and cannot (alter) do with their programming.

@redskull: I hate these. Nickelodeon has these "flash-like" banners that take up almost a fourth or third of the screen advertising the upcoming show. Of course, now that they have teased me relentlessly about that show, I can't enjoy it because I'm being teased about the show after that. I'm already watching the channel, let me enjoy the content without you ruining it by telling me about all the content I can't see all of anyway!

I'll be happy when they stop producing their local commercials... which just about all commercials are on the digital tier I have... at twice the volume of the regular programming.

Even Comcast Frank just blows me off on that subject claiming it's the fault of the people who produce the commercials.

Note to Frank: Just tell those companies you will not air commercials that rattle the dishes in the cupboards... or that exceed the decibel levels per volume setting that your own programming does. I've even heard commercials start at fairly normal volume and perceptibly ramp up to earsplitting. And volume increases PLUS Billy Maze were guaranteed to have your neighbor banging on the wall.

And yeah... commercials for Comcast when you're WATCHING them on Comcast as a whole bunch much... especially since they run a double volume also.

@Belabras ate my dingo!:

haha sounds like you are holding a grudge.

@redskull: Read The Merchant's War by Fred Pohl... Your premise is not as far fetched as you might think. It was satire when written back in the mid 80s, now it's finally coming true.

@G99: That happens constantly here. (Central CA)

Comcast did this to me a few years back when I was trying to watch Remember the 80s on VH1.

When I called to complain, the person on the phone had the gall to ask what I wanted her to do about it.

Fortunately I've never seen it since.

I've completely stopped watching TV when I moved to US. When I used to live in Korea, the commercials went on between shows. That means no commercial for whole 30 mins or an hour. When I came to US, commercial shows every 8 mins. What a waste of time. Not that it justified downloading shows, but I downloaded instead.

Now, I don't even bother with downloading, even that's too much work because i have to find, download (wait), then watch. Now, I just watch most of shows on Netflix like the show "Lost" since I completely missed out on that. I also use HULU and whatnot. My favorite show? SouthPark is already online. Sure, commercials are there too in between but somehow that's less annoying and much shorter commercials. Guess what advertisers? Online stuff works! I actually sit down and watch the damn commercials. When I end up watching TV (exclusively for sports since it's only fun live), whenever there is commercial, I walk away or turn to another channel or go online.

@sicknick: Well, I don't have cable either. I have rabbit ears but I only use it to watch PBS and occasionally the local news/weather/traffic.

I mainly use the NetFlix, Hulu, and other various sites to watch my tv as well.

@squinko: I thought maybe so, but it was hard to tell. gStein certainly was not, though.

@Mknzybsofh: "I couldn't care less".

@coan_net: Sometimes it helps tom ake other people aware of the situation, especially if it's on a large scale. Nothing wrong with that.

@SacraBos:
What annoys me is when the banner tells me what I'm currently watching. I KNOW WHAT I'M CURRENTLY WATCHING; I'M WATCHING IT!!!!

/endrant

@Mknzybsofh:
Now that I watch mlb.tv, I rarely ever watch sports on television anymore. I think I'm getting close to cutting my cable like you did.

@Hanshiro:

I think that is happening now. sure seems to be the trend. I hear cable horror stories every day. I wouldn't touch that crap with an anti-radiation suit.

@sicknick: That's great for shows that have already played, but how do you go about watching live events like Football or Baseball games?

I watch free digital TV, and this is not a problem anymore.