‘Pause Ads’ Creep Onto Hulu, Peacock and Max as Streamers Seek New Revenue

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 186 points –
‘Pause Ads’ Creep Onto Hulu, Peacock and Max as Streamers Seek New Revenue
variety.com

‘Pause Ads’ Creep Onto Hulu, Peacock and Max as Streamers Seek New Revenue::Big streaming services like Hulu, Max and Peacock are relying more heavily on 'pause ads' that show up when a user halts a binge session

16

Being in advertising “r&d” for these companies must be the easiest job in the world. All you have to do is insert ads into every possible slot (oftentimes just following another example), wait for consumers to roll over and pay for it, then do it again in six months. Freest money ever since consumers will take every blow they’re dealt and just keep paying for it no matter how bad the product becomes. Some day they’ll perfect the art and blast ads in the middle of the screen with the actual show in the top letterbox— reserving the bottom letterbox for buy it now buttons— and they’ll get fired like everyone else. But until then, easiest paycheck in the world

It'll be like in Futurama where they broadcast as directly into your dreams.

Yup. Currently work at an ad tech company and we just pushed a new ad surface and the executives freaking loved it. It adds on additional revenue without putting any of the current revenue at risk. Internally, the narrative was super positive while externally it was "Well, that's kind of annoying".

So long as user engagement doesn't totally tank, they see it as a complete win.

Pause ads seem much less annoying than regular ads so sure, do that, don't care when the show is paused

I was subscribed to paramount+ for Star Trek, and occasionally I'd pause to catch Easter eggs or read something on the screen, get a better look at a ship, etc - but all I could see was a shirtless man selling me old spice. It was actually really frustrating.

They could have definitely implemented it better. What comes to my mind is showing the ad only when the shiw is stopped and mouse was inactive for 5 seconds. This way, you could just jiggle your mouse a little when trying to catch those easter eggs. Not ideal, but much better than regular ads IMO.

They seem less annoying now. Just wait until you have pause ads coupled with regular ads!

2 more...
2 more...