>What stopped that,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Advertisement_Loudn...

I didn't know about the act, but I remember when they stopped doing it, and was told that was the reason (I was around in '84).

Might be a "chicken/egg" thing.

is there a programmable tv that i can do something like this ?

i want to mute ads when i am watching espn plus. my current tv is fire tv. i guess i'd have to build a little robot arm that presses mute button on the remote?

if you want to automate pressing buton, there is something called "fingerbot"