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Originally when I started my comment you mentioned watching cable TV (since removed), but I think a lot of people forget that cable TV started out as an ad free service as well. It's just the same bait and switch over and over again. Revenue must be maximized and competition is always either non existent or in collusion.

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As I understand it, very few cable channels started out ad-free, and that didn’t last long.

By the time it was available in my area, cable TV was a service to provide better reception and more channels that OTA, but everything aside from subscription channels like HBO were riddled with commercials.

My point is that for most people in the U.S. there was never a bait and switch with cable. It was just more programming (ads). And you paid for it, unlike OTA.

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