A method and system for scheduling commercial advertisement are described in which a data processing system having the spot scheduler solver may be operable to receive an advertiser's order to place advertisement or commercial spots into one or more commercial television breaks. The order may comprise various constraints and requirements corresponding to the spots. The spots may be assigned to inventory buckets within the commercial breaks based on the constraints and requirements. When a conflict arises, a prioritization scheme may be performed to complete the assignment of spots not assigned and to generate a commercial break schedule. The prioritization scheme may be based on spot arrival lead time or on maximizing the sum of the rates corresponding to the spots. The data processing system may maximize the spread of the spots over the commercial break schedule. The commercial break schedule may be adjusted when additional orders are received.