[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I guess my perspective is partly formed by having a spouse that vehemently hates them.

I encounter that hatred a lot myself. It did, does, and probably always will puzzle the poop out of me.

if a network or whatever wants to make the content "free" to me, and slap commercials in there, fine. But once you start paying for it, you oughtn't have to suffer through commercials, paid announcements or anything else other than the content.

YOU don't oughtn't have to. Nobody is required to pay for "premium services" that insert robo-ads. It's strictly voluntary. You seem to be saying, "no one oughtn't WANT to pay for such a thing," which of course, isn't really your call to make.

(I mean, isn't this how the Cable stations got started? The whole IDEA of commercial-free TV?)

That's not how I remember it. Cable TV was just as commercial-ly as OTA when it first came to my town. The draw for cable was getting more than the three channels you currently pulled in with your antenna (two of which were religious broadcasting). The draw was also a perfect (perfect then) picture, no rabbit-ears, no 40-foot tower attached to your house, and no using the antenna rotator to "dial the station in." Even when the likes of cable-only TNT, TBS, ESPN and Discovery came along, it wasn't about commercial-free. I think you're thinking of "premium" cable channels like HBO, Cinemax and Showtime that introduced the IDEA of commercial free television. You paid an extra fee (above and beyond the basic cable rate) for those premium commercial-free channels. And they were movies-only at that time. They had no (or very damn little) original programming. Many people (myself included) had cable for decades with no commercial-free channels. I willingly (and evenly) trade the "Aired just last night on NBC with commercials" feature offered by Hulu with the "commercial-free (but five years behind the times)" Netflix television catalog. Actually, I pay for both and think they're both "worth it."

No Commercials But Older Than Dirt == Aired Last Night But You Get Commercials (IMO)

Sorry, and back to the actual topic again: MTV?? Do they have any non-reality TV shows, in the first place?

I'll be honest... I haven't watched, or even thought about MTV in 25 years or so. I don't even know what channel it's on on my TV. But supposedly, they're trying to change the nature of their original programming. I have no idea if it will fly or not, but there's some very capable people's names attached to it (Jon Favreau as exec producer, for one) and they seem to have thrown a crap-ton of money at this thing. I HOPE it's good, but I'll just quietly change the channel if it's not.