Commercial Break in Progress

Hi, @Mjmaher01

Thanks for reaching out, we want to get to the bottom of this. Please tell us what device you are using to stream with and how often you see this interruption. Let us know if it's localized to a single channel or not. If it is, please relay the name of the network in question. 

Charles O. Community Specialist 

I have been experiencing this lately more frequently.  I'm ok with the reasoning the breaks occur but it seems like it gets stuck.  I let it go on purpose one day and it stayed on that commercial break in progress with that same music that i hear in my sleep for 28 minutes solid.  Getting kind of tired of this and may go back to cable TV competitor.  I don't want a satellite dish attached to my house, Uverse has gotten worse and expensive.  I thought direct now was going to be the savior but its starting to be awful too.

AT&T needs to do something about the ridiculous frequency and length of the Commercial Break in Progress breaks.  Frankly, I’d rather see ads than this annoying window and single ad that plays 10 times an hour.  Never had this annoying feature with EPB or Comcast in Chattanooga.

Odd; I see reports of this problem all over, but it's never happened to me.  I wonder whether the problem is localized to certain areas.  I'm in NYC, 10022.

It almost certainly is related to that.  The spots are commercial slots provided to the carrier (whether cable or satellite - I'm not sure for OTA broadcast) to sell.  In most major markets, for most programming, at most times, AT&T is able to sell ads for their slots.  In other cases they can't.  There is generally a "last resort" ad in that slot sold by the content provider network (for a very discounted rate, because it usually won't be seen) that the carrier can leave in place.  AT&T has apparently chosen to not show these (since they get no revenue for them, and they aren't contractually required to).  The also apparently have chosen not to run PSAs or house ads for some reason (perhaps they aren't logistically set up for that?) - hence the break cards.  I would guess these would be more frequent during off hours, on less popular channels, in smaller media markets - the times/places where it is likely harder to sell ads.   NYC is probably not one of those places.

It would seem that - as AT&T views AT&T TV as their primary video offering going forward - they would invest in mechanisms for PSAs and house ads to cover these occurances, as these bother subscribers less than what they do now (and have other corporate benefits), but their investment in the AT&T TV infrastructure and technology (as opposed to marketing) seems underwhelming...

I'm in Georgia and see the "Commercial break in progress" so often I hear the annoying tune in my sleep. For the love of all that is holy, PLEASE make it stop! I'm in an apartment and have no other options for providers or I would switch today. I'm considering cancelling and only use streaming services just so I will never have to hear the annoying tune again. 

If you are using AT&T TV, which is a streaming service, you do have other options - one of the points/benefits of OTT services is that there is no special infrastructure you need besides internet.  Sling, YouTube TV, Hulu Live TV, Philo, and a number of others offer similar services and all you need to get them is an internet service.  But no guarantee that they wouldn't have a similar "commercial break" issue, as on the same channels they would have the same slots to fill.

I've seen this to and it no doubt has to do with streaming vs direct cable for some of the local commercials. I've always had it come back after a brief period of time though.

Same reason we don't have PBS because only YouTube TV is streaming that.

Only YouTube TV is streaming PBS stations currently - because YouTube was the first streaming service to manage negotiations with PBS after PBS's restrictions on streaming were lifted end of last year.  PBS indicated that they want to also be on additional streaming services - this year if possible.

how do  you stop the Commercial Break in Progess? it is very aggravating

and happens too often

please help, we get this "Commercial Break in Progress" way to often and it is aggravating - what can we do?