Actually I'm pretty sure that if you take away the strawman (i'm not saying people don't change channels, I'm saying their remote usage isn't governed by critical thinking, it's governed by easily manipulated emotions) it is the norm, and advertising rates are determined scientifically by those data points.

Interestingly, people who feel they aren't manipulated by the meta-reality and it's subconscious suggestions are just as suspectible to being manipulated by the metareality.

You can make big generalizations about people's usage of TV because they have the same neurological responses to it, which is the reason advertising works, and the meaning of 'the medium is the message' and the subject of a bunch of scientific research done by corporations to manipulate you into thinking you need axe body spray. Did you know Procter Gamble uses the same propaganda techniques early communist china did, over the air? Politicians calculate exactly what effects an ad will have on a specific demographic based on the profile of the audience of the show they watch.

You give people to much credit. It large numbers, like in tv viewers, their behavior is very hivelike.