What is going on? You cannot watch a football match without being bombarded with flashing lights of the advertisers. E mails are similarly infested with flash advertising, and now TV programmes are also to be cut to make way for even more advertising. Gadzooks!

John Lawrence, Stirling, Uk

Pure "greed" nothing less - nearly time to switch off I think!

Nick, Greater London, England

Surely not! Is there not too much advertising already, mostly purile, repetitive and often misleading?

The title "It time to put the kettle on" is well chosen for our defense against this irritation but why should we need this subterfuge? And it is more than a mere irritation. I am sure that many of the ills of our society can be blamed at the deliberately deceptive propoganda to which we are continually exposed.

Of course most people recognise the deceit for what it is. Few really believe that the celebrity they respect really believes in, or even uses the product they recommend so enthusiastically. But surely that makes matters even worse. What an example of dishonesty we are set?

With all its faults give me the BBC.

Harry Taylor, Quedgeley, Gloucester

If people want to spend their leisure time watching adverts, that's their choice. Personally, I cancelled my Sky subscription many years ago partly because of the horrendous number of adverts (at peak time on Sky 1, I calculated there were 3 minutes of adverts every 7.5 minutes, making the programmes unwatchable).

I later got rid of the TV, mainly because of the dumbing-down of programming, but also the ads. TV companies increase their ad-content at their peril. Soon, only chavs will watch TV.

Michael, Brighton, England

An average of 13 mins per hour advertising on US television??? I don't know where you are getting this from but I can tell you from personal experience it's much more than that.
The United States is virtually alone in not regulating ad time on television. US television devotes more time to ads than other developed countries and this is no short-term trend - at least since the early 1990s, the rate has crept upwards nearly every year. Average non-program minutes in prime time television on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox rose from 13:26 minutes per hour to 16:08 minutes per hour in recent years. At the extremes ABC has exceeded seventeen minutes per hour twice, NBC once, the WB three times.
Thank god for DVR or TiVo, (I think the closest thing to it in the UK is Sky Digital), I've calculated that if I'm watching a show that runs from 9pm-10pm and TiVo'd it I can start watching it at about 9.15pm and fast forward thru all the ads and by the time the show's over I'm back with live time TV.

John Kench, Charlotte, NC, USA (Ex-UK)

I hope they do relax the ruling so that these channels can have the money to create some quality programming, pay for better producers, better writers, equipment, effects and cinematography. The capital raised in the US allows them to make quality, good looking TV shows, now compare the effects and acting in SUPERNATURAL to DOCTOR WHO (the new version) they are getting their moneys worth... not us. With the new capital at their disposal they can start to give the BBC a run for their money then hopefully... eventually... the licence fee will be abolished and they will show adverts too. Instead of having an illegal monopoly on broadcasting that they enjoy in this country, they should be made to produce quality programming and make their own capital. Then maybe we can return to the glory days of good British TV shows. Until then, we must make do with badly lit, cheaper looking programs with laughable effects.

Sport should be the exception though!

Graeme, Edinburgh,