OH DEAR. All those TV ads you have to sit through? It’s about to get so much worse.

According to a report in The Australian, Channel Seven and Channel Nine are lobbying the government to increase the amount of ads they’re allowed to show you. Currently, the networks can’t broadcast more than 15 minutes of ads every hour.

But Seven and Nine want to increase that to 20 minutes. Which means one in every three minutes on commercial TV would be spent schilling yoghurt, insurance, cars or the network’s own never-ending line-up of reality fare.

The proposal is being bandied about within the free-to-air TV industry body Free TV, with Seven and Nine strongly in favour and Network Ten strongly opposed.

Free TV chairman Harold Mitchell told The Australian the industry was looking at a model that would take into account not upsetting viewers. He said: “We’re always very aware there can be too much ad content from time to time, and the viewers are very conscious of it, so there needs to be a balance. It’s under careful review.”

If the networks are successful in their bid, which would require the approval of federal Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Australia would have the highest ratio of ads to content of any Western country, The Australian wrote.

The UK is limited to 12 minutes per hour while American TV hour-long programs typically run for 42 to 43 minutes, leaving 17 to 18 minutes per hour for commercials.

But is it even a good move? Not everyone thinks so.

Lucy Formosa-Morgan, head of trading at media buying agency PHD, told news.com.au: “The [TV ad market] is relatively soft so I doubt there’s much demand for it from advertisers. The networks would also have to change the revenue model for it if there’s going to be that much additional inventory.

“But also, viewers would have an issue with it. 20 minutes of ads per hour is a huge volume and we’d be driving the audience to other media such as online quicker than they’re already going.”

Between them, the three full-scale commercial free-to-air networks (SBS is still partly funded by the government), pulled in $3b in revenue from ad sales in the metropolitan market. However, growth is slow and the market remains short-term, which means advertisers are not booking with long leads.

Seven and Nine control almost 80 per cent of the market, which is why the two are moving to shore up its stronger position, and why Ten is opposed to the move.

What do you think? How do you feel about longer TV ads? Comment below.