The GTA thing is even worse than that; television doesn't air commercials before the beginning of the show!

Especially if you have to watch the full ten minutes first.

Then again, that's what they do at movie theaters...

I remember realizing I was 10-20 minutes into an infomercial instead of regular commercials late at night when I was young. I was probably distracted at the time but man did I feel stupid when I realized that it wasnt just a really long P90X commercial.

It depends on the channel, really. I remember once I was sitting at an eatery in the Philippines (basically a cafeteria with immediately-available food) and the TV just played commercials from the time I sat down until I left.