Watching Australian episodes of Home & Away, they had 5 ad breaks, and the last one was 40 seconds before the end credits!!

Imagine if a UK channel had that many ad breaks, and one so near the end!

Yeah, the amount of advertising in Australia and New Zealand is absolutely shocking. We've been complaining about it for years.

when I was in NSW 5 years ago they only had 3 ad breaks, they had 3 ad breaks but the last one was before the preview at the end the episodes.
I thought it was cool as their ads are very funny and much much shorter, when I watch on Five I have to do something else during the whopping 4 minute ad break ! ad break placed where it shouldn't be, so the last scene before it is cut before it's actually finished !
I for one love the Australian way. And I doubt very much they have 5 ad breaks per episodes.
They still have 3 during Neighbours.

There isn't more advertising in Oz than in the UK, it's a myth, the only difference is that in Oz the ads are shorter, funnier, and placed where they should be.

And in NZ as far as I know, you don't have to pay a TV licence which I think is pretty cool.

Well in NZ there is more advertising...we have the highest rate in the western world.

But as you say, there is no TV licence to pay, which is pretty cool. There used to be a TV licence but we never paid ours anyway! Once someone came around to check and mum's neighbour lied and said her TV was only used for Videos and then said that we didn't have one, so the Tv licence guy never came around to check on us LOL.

you guy are so cool, I wish I could do that.
So how long is a Home & Away episode in NZ then.
In Britain they are 26 minutes ads included but there are no previews before the closing credits.

its 30 minutes with the ads included here. We get no previews before the closing credits either.

We also have 3 ad breaks the last one coming just before the final scene.

Your're right I just watched the episode for Thursday 16th September, 2004 ( #3819) and this time there were 3 advert breaks:

2 minutes into the programme it displays 'Available In Widescreen Digital + High Definition'

The last ad break was 40 seconds before the end credits start, where Morag says 'They said you were a dead ringer for Angie, they weren't wrong.....'

They do not have a promo before the end credits, the promo runs during the end credits.

It looks like a few things have changed since I was last in Oz.
There used to be a promo before the end credits, and the last ad break was after the last scene.
I didn't mind it then then but putting one just before the last scene is a bit rotten of them.
16th of Sept, huh, do you download the episodes from somewhere ?

Yeah, just watched Friday 17th too.

I was staying with family in Melbourne last summer and I found the amount of commercial breaks on telly there even more annoying than in the US!