TBH I think similar devices have been thought up over the years but the makers have been threatened with legal action by the TV companies (at least in the USA). Modern technology could easily look for the patterns before ad breaks… Unfortunately the commercial TV companies claim there is an implicit contract that viewing some ads is the condition of being able to watch the programme content, in the same way that a license fee means you can watch the BBC (or your national broadcaster in other countries with the same model)

using the cue dot won’t always work as it isn’t used that often and is being phased out. it was intended for use on the occasions where there is a variable duration between a programme segment and an ad break, so its only normally used on live studio productions.

The cue dot is to warn real humans at BT or Arqiva to switch the correct circuits and the regional TX centres to play out the regional ad breaks and increasingly this job is done by machines. there are way less live studio productions about these days due to cost cutting and even regional TX often comes from Granada these days so its use is becoming obsolete.

Incidentally although the dragons den is auntie’s show, the TV industry has become so lean that Auntie and Granada share resources. Do you really think the industry is going to showcase a product that destroys one of their main revenue streams ?