Masters and Television Commercials: Over on Per Curiam, there is a post discussing why the Masters is such an enjoyable viewing experience: namely, there are no commercials. Obviously, advertising dollars are a part of sports, but it sure is nice to watch a great round of golf without being interrupted by dancing monkeys and "low carb" beer commercials. A preview:

The difference from normal television is startling. Studies show that viewers are being inundated by more and more commercials and "clutter" during television programming. Twenty years ago, the FCC deregulated restrictions on commercialization, eliminating the 16 minutes per hour limit. As one of its reasons, the FCC stated that networks showed only 11 minutes of commercials per hour. In the past two decades, though, this number has risen to 16-20 minutes per hour, including 17 minutes per hour during prime time on the four main networks. Thus, nearly one-third of all television time consists of car ads, promotions for the latest sitcom and plugs for the "most important news story of the year - film at 11."