In the UK, we've always had the TV licence which means the BBC is free of commercials. However, ITV, Channel 4, and other free channels have never been commercial free. The difference is, we don't pay a subscription for them beyond a TV licence.

I don't think the UK will be too enamoured with the idea of paying for a service with commercials. In our house at least, if I want a streaming service (or rather, if my wife does, as I'm too busy with cinema and books to care about TV much), it will mean pay for commercial free, or don't have it at all. There's no way we'll pay for a service with commercials on top of already paying a TV licence fee.