ESPN justifies the high price of its channel, in part, by offering advertising slots to cable operators. I forget the exact ratio, but if I recall correctly, cable operators get somewhere between 15% and 30% of the ad space on ESPN. Not long ago, Verizon began using commercial insertion equipment to insert their own ads (often those VOD spots) into those advertising slots. Note ESPN doesn't display a black 15s or 30s screen where the cable operator's ad would go; they just display another advertisement that cable operators are allowed to "replace."
Often times, those ad slots will fall between ESPN's own commercials, so if a commercial runs a second over, all you miss is a second from another commercial. If Verizon's ad doesn't run long enough (say 15s of a 30s spot), then you will see part of original ESPN ad that they were supposed to replace.
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