Abstract: A system for automatically editing commercial messages within a television broadcast. Connection of the apparatus to a video system is simplified over the prior art by requiring only one video input connection. The video input of the apparatus can be connected to the video output jack of either a television receiver or a VCR. The apparatus determines the beginning of a commercial message by detecting the absence of video information, above a dynamic bias level, for the duration of two consecutive composite video fields. The end of a commercial message is determined by an intelligent decision making process. This process takes advantage of movement characteristics inherent in video commercial advertisements along with the type of event being recorded. Based on the event type, a dynamically updated run time list is accessed to compare the current commercial run time against high percentage historical run times.