Commercial Break in Progress

Good evening @m8219, 

Thanks for reaching out! The screen you are running into are ad replacement screens that take place of ads that are unable to be streamed in specific areas.

We apologize for any inconveniences. If there is anything else we may assist you with please let us know.

KristinA AT&T Community Specialist

This MUZAK is THEE most annoying thing on the planet.. and it keeps happening. It only goes away when you change the channel and come back. Doesn’t seem like it has to do with ads. Hulu Live doesn’t have this issue I hear.. why should I keep paying too much money to be annoyed every single commercial break?????

Having the same problem with Roku, I've found that if I press the pause button twice that annoying commercial music is replace by the actual commercial.  It may take more than a couple of pauses but you at least feel you're doing something other than contemplating something disastrous. Maybe it is the Roku cause I'm having problem setting up CC where its livable...this cord cutting business has its pitfalls after 20+ years with DirecTV.  But ya gotta smile and enjoy the lower bill while figuring out the other problems. 😉

Ok.  I can confirm it’s not the device you are streaming.   I recently switched to AT&T when they brought fiber to my neighborhood.  With it, we got AT&T TV and on many channels this annoying ad (same pic, same music) plays over and over ....and over and over again.  Super annoying.  And we have the AT&T provided tv boxes.   We still get these all the time.  It’s not a regional thing because the blocked commercials play on literally any other TV service.   Is it possible AT&T  TV is still so small-time that they can’t sell enough commercials to fill up all the slots?  (One of their onsite AT&T local technicians actually floated that idea to me). 

Super disappointed at this point. 

This has to be the most annoying thing I have ever encountered with a tv service. This "commercial break" is a joke if I turn the channel and turn it back it goes to a regular commercial, one time i let that "commercial break" thing run and it lasted 25 min it would not go away and i went to change the channel and go back and my show was about over. When is this going to be taken off because it is the most annoying thing when i have to change channels and go back to see my show or regular commercials. NO rep will tell me the truth on why this happens. And i have the actual cable box . 

Ive called so many times and never got an answer.

These commercial break in progress commercials are the worst! 

the music needs to be changed and the volume dropped down to match with the regular programming. 

please listen to us ATT! 

Interesting.  I'm not experiencing this issue, but that may be because I watch everything through the DVR, even live shows (I record the live show and then watch it through the DVR so I can pause/fast forward/rewind).  

I'm going to try watching live for a change to see whether I'm experiencing the same problem.

The channels I watch most often are TCM, SyFy, ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.  Does it make a difference which channel you watch when you're experiencing this problem?  Have you experienced this problem on any of the channels I listed?  Thanks.

Well, I watched MSNBC live for a few hours and did not experience the problem.  If you could say on which channels you're experiencing the issue I'd be curious to know.  Thanks.  Oh, also, I'm using a Roku Ultra.

I would guess that since these are most likely local or regional commercial slots that they failed to fill, where the subscriber is probably matters a lot - smaller media markets seem more likely to have unfilled slots.  And when probably matters too - late night or other low viewership times may be more likely to have unfilled slots.  Finally, as you suggest, the channel may matter - again, low(er) viewership channels seem more likely to experience it.  You are watching what are fairly major channels.  If you watch (well, record) during busy hours, and if you are in a major media market, my guess is that you are far less likely to encounter the issue.

The fact that you can disengage the very annoying commercial music pause, by double clicking the pause button on my Roku remote, debunks ATT’s response that the problem is due to streaming inability for some commercials. Once I double click,... commercials resume mid stream!!!!!

"Inability" means it is AT&T's slot for a commercial, but they didn't sell one, so the commercial that is there is someone else's (that AT&T doesn't get paid for), and they have no interest in displaying it for free.  I'm not sure why pausing and resuming restores the underlying commercial (it doesn't seem like it should), but that is an artifact - not a sign that anything "should" be different.

This is just ONE of the things that annoys me about ATT TV.  I don't believe the "commercial can't be streamed in your area" line... cause the broadcast channels have no trouble airing it... 

I cannot wait until I get out of the contract for ATT TV and I can go back to Comcast (never thought those words would leave my mouth!)  

If you read this thread, you'd understand that the broadcast stations don't do it (usually - I've seen broadcast stations do similar things) because they are better at selling local ads to fill their slots, probably because they are local and have ad salespeople in the area.