Cable had ads too, and you couldn't pay more for ad-free.
I mean that's just "cable pricing" as, unless I'm missing something, cable has ads.
I'm old enough to remember that the original pitch to get people to pay for cable TV (which was a big barrier in the 1960s/70s) was "Yes, there's a monthly fee - but no ads!). The only time I see cable TV is when I'm staying in a motel, and I'm just astonished by the ad load.
Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to imply that cable didn't have ads.