A word from our sponsors....

Ad breaks on Spanish TV are weird.

Having a film or sports match interrupted by advertisements is annoying enough in the UK, but at least the channels there try to wait for a lull in the action or storyline before cutting to commercials, while many made-for-TV programmes actually build in the edit points with an ad break in mind. In Spain, however, not only are the ad breaks seemingly interminable (at least 10 minutes long) but they just interrupt at the most random points. Last night we were watching a film only for a key emotional moment to be interrupted by adverts. When the (at least twice as loud as the film) ad break finally finished it turned out there was only about 30 seconds of the film left to run - I was in the kitchen doing the washing up so missed it entirely. What was the point of an ad break then? On other occasions, the built in credits and re-caps designed to fit around a commercial break on imported American series are ignored, only for ads for cold sore creams to interrupt a key car chase.

I can only assume that it's all a ploy by the Spanish government to encourage people to leave their homes and spend money by completely frustrating their every effort to watch Television. Or, in a more mundane explanation, ad breaks are simply pre-programmed to come on at a specific time, regardless of what is happening in the programme. I prefer the first explanation myself.