It stands to reason that at some point in your life you have turned on a TV. It’s even more likely you’ve gone online and watched a video somewhere, probably on YouTube. And if you have done either one of these things then it is more than likely that you have grown to hate commercials.

Certainly there’s nobody who genuinely likes them. After all, every half-hour program is really only 22 minutes long, the other eight are taken up by ads. You got some reprieve when TV programs and other original programs started showing up online, but then those damn ads followed you there too, popping up before, after and even during every video you watch. Thankfully, you can install Adblock, or better yet download from any one of the many streaming sites available online. Sure, technically the latter is illegal, but it’s not like anybody except the greedy corporations are being affected, so why shouldn’t you enjoy what you love without interruptions?

The thing is, the creators of your favorite movies, TV shows and programs don’t get paid unless you watch the interruptions. That’s how it works – how it’s always worked since the dawn of television. The company supplies the network with cash so they can make their dream projects, and in return the company gets to air ads for their products. That’s why there are commercials on YouTube now, because YouTube needs the money to keep going.

And installing Adblock or pirating your favorite programs guarantees the people who spent all their time and effort to create the episode you are about to sit down and enjoy aren’t going to get a single solitary cent for their labors. You watching their episodes is not their reward for a job well done; getting enough money to make more episodes, and spend on trivialities like food, is their reward—and just to reiterate, they don’t get that reward when you don’t watch the ads.

The consequences of this can already be felt – despite the passionate outcry of devoted fan bases, niche programs like “Community” and “30 Rock” have either moved to an online only distribution or simply canceled altogether, because said devoted fan bases weren’t watching the programs when they actually aired, or blocking out the accompanying ads when they appeared online. This means the Hollywood machine, which is infamously adverse to taking chances of any kind, isn’t going for those kinds of programs anymore. The critically acclaimed “Avatar the Last Airbender” cost about $1 million an episode, and “The Legend of Korra” sequel series, which had even higher quality animation, was eventually shunted to online only. Creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino aren’t planning to continue the franchise, but there’s no way Nickelodeon would let them even if they wanted to. Big expensive shows doing something new have the potential to be big, expensive disasters—and the less you watch the ads, the less often networks will take that risk.

So the next time you want to keep your favorite shows going, be sure to watch the ads that come with them. It doesn’t even matter if you press the “skip” button as soon as they start playing – all they care about is that you aren’t skipping them altogether. Taking 30 seconds of your life to see the ads ensures your favorite writers and directors will keep making what you enjoy.