Sometimes they <i>are</i> the shows you watch--as in, you may be watching a large advertisement with several smaller advertisements inserted into it.<p>Example: the Disneyland 60th Anniversary TV Special.  Disney&#x2F;ABC is particularly fond of advertising cross-medium Disney properties&#x2F;investments on Disney-controlled television and radio broadcasts.  For instance, Radio Disney definitely plays a disproportionately high number of DMG (Walt Disney Records + Hollywood Records&#x2F;DMG Nashville) recordings.<p>My spouse was watching it.  I saw 30 seconds of it and said, &quot;this is a long format ad for Disney parks,&quot; before tuning it out.<p>The long-format ads are rather common on the local news broadcasts.  Some stations show more than others.