Even at an inflated rate of $50 per 1000 impressions (which is higher than most broadcast TV charges), $20 should let you bypass 400 commercials. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me.
So one day of watching?
A regular one-hour-long TV show has about 4 commercial breaks, each with about 10 commercials, so that's 40 commercials an hour. If one was really into the Olympics, they might have their TV on for at least 10 hours during the day (while sometimes doing other tasks). 10 hours * 40 comercials an hour = 400 commercials a day.
Sports broadcasts usually have more commercial breaks of shorter varrying lengths, but I'd estimate it averages the same, if not a higher commercial count per hour.
'Just pay 100 merits to skip..Oh you've used all your skips this hour.'
Beeeeeeeeep 'Resume viewing, resume viewing.
“upgrade to premium today to disable these annoying ads”
We get closer to this every single day.
But this is HN, 1/4[1] of the UB are probably in ads one way or another (ie work for fb/goog et al), another 1/4 of the UB are of the 'growth hacking win at all costs wannabe-CEO (ie lying and creating fake accts a la reddit, you name it).
But I hope another 1/4 of us are conscientious objectors. Leaving 1/4 for those who can't be bothered.
Anyways I usually assume 1/4-1/2 or more of HN will usually disagree with what I say, I don't mind.
[1] All numbers pulled from my behind.