They started doing it yeah. But I believe that there are still very little commercials. The reason being that they are part of all the standard channels everybody gets, so they get money regardless of the viewer count and don't rely on ad-income.

Depends on the country in Europe.

I know about BBC News in the UK, and in France, there are now 4, and soon, 5 (BFMtv, ITele, LCI, France 24, France Info).