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I was wondering whether I was imagining that the advert breaks on some of the satellite channels seemed to be getting longer.

Not quite at the level of American channels where there can be an ad break in the title sequence at each end of a show, but certainly that there were now sometimes around a dozen adverts in the breaks throughout a programme.

I'd probably missed that the satellite channels can already run 12 minutes of adverts per hour whereas traditional broadcasters have had to make do with around half of this. It turns out that its all to be changed as an experiment and that additionally there can be product placement in certain shows.

It could also explain a strange little sequence I saw in the new Hawaii Five - Oh series, where at the end of the first episode one of the cops gave his buddy a hotel voucher. I thought it was slightly wooden moment, until a few moments later the credits rolled including a 'sponsored by' sequence featuring a well known hotel chain.

I'm not sure about all of this.