The magazine format, in fact, only worked because television was uncompetitive enough that the networks could, effectively, raise their prices in tandem—force the viewers to watch more advertising for the same, or even less, entertainment. It is a testament to the market power over their audiences that CBS and NBC had achieved by the 1950s—there was no serious alternative with less advertising, so viewers put up with the intrusion.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 477