I remember, when I lived in the UK, appreciating the fact that I could watch BBC progs I did like without arse-brained commercial interruption. I get the same benefit from DVDs. When we still watched satellite TV here in the Groove Shack, we would occasionally get free weekends of BBC America (it wasn't one of our subscription channels). The BBC news was so superior (sensibly presented and relatively unbiased) to any other TV news service that I was shocked.