One of the features of my (kinda) new ReplayTV is Commercial Advance. When I'm watching a show it previously recorded, and it detects a commercial break, it skips ahead to the end, playing only the first few seconds of the first commercial and the last few seconds of the last commercial. Which is why I sometimes get sound bites like this:
The love of your life
[BLIP]
Only nineteen-ninety-nine for the first three months!
Wow, I overpayed something fierce!