Let's see, there the government collects a license fee from every TV user, and then gives some of that to the TV stations. Okay, problem is, the TV station better not annoy the bureaucrats in the government if they want to get that money... [scene: news dept "we just found out that the prime minister is sleeping with that famous movie star" "Okay, let's make that story the lead item in tonight's broadcast". "better not, he runs the TV licensing dept and he could have them "forget" to pay us..."]. I wouldn't want to give the government that kind of influence over my media. Here, we just have our Funny Cookie Corporation (FCC) enforce meter reading on transmitters and issue fines if someone says the F word...
I'd rather have the commercials than have the government's finger in the pie. Besides, commercials give you time to go to the bathroom or grab a sandwich. And with multiple networks, and multiple sponsor companies, no one orginization can screw with the media.
We Americans are rather squirrelly about that sort of thing, our 1st Amendment.