[Kojak]

I liked BBC World News In 2000 for pres geeks it was an absolute joy, but I did notice in Europe there was barely any ads, we just got the wonderful breakfiller instead.

Probably one of the main reasons that the channel was in such a poor financial state at the time. Regardless of how good the pres was, the channel was struggling in a lot of ways back then - 2000-01 was the nadir in live news content for a reason. Indeed, I recall reading that at one point in the early-2000s there was a strong 'if things don't improve, it's curtains' vibe (the kerfuffle over usage fees didn't help). 2006 - when they finally got proper US distribution - was the big turning point for the channel as that was then really started bringing in the ad revenues and allowed them to reintroduce 'stranded' news programming for the first time since it was all cut in the late-1990s.

I know it's not necessarily 'done' to bump a six-week old thread, but anyway...

RE: the no ads on BBC World in Europe - I take it you would have been watching via one of the Astra satellites, @harshy? If so, then I suspect the reason you weren't seeing any ads was that AIUI they were (and are) sold by the local cable/satellite providers. There probably wouldn't have been much capacity, or desire, for pan-European adverts. 

There was indeed a point in the mid-2000s (2004, to be exact) when Michael Grade threatened to close World if it didn't improve its ratings. Here is a Guardian article about that, and here is the blue place's thread about it.