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Netflix Is Experimenting With Advertising
derekmead writes: Netflix is experimenting with pre-roll and post-roll advertisements for some of its users. For now, it's just pitching it's own original programming. However, many are concerned that they plan to serve third-party ads, but the company says they have no plans to do so. They told Mashable in a statement: "We are not planning to test or implement third-party advertising on the Netflix service. For some time, we've teased Netflix originals with short trailers after a member finishes watching a show. Some members in a limited test now are seeing teases before a show begins. We test hundreds of potential improvements to the service every year. Many never extend beyond that."
...provided they don't show the same damn one every time. I find a lot of good shows through the "Recommended for You" category, if they teased one of those I'd be OK with it. But it's a slippery slope. You kids won't believe this, but used to be we didn't have to sit through half an hour of commercials in movie theaters, they even showed cartoons before the movie. And my lawn, get off it.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
I really hope they don't do pre show ads, hbo does it, and it's a huge pain.
It's doubly a pain to see the same ones when binge watching.
I understand why hbo does this, they need to alert you to new content to keep you interested, but Netflix already does this on the home screen. They don't need to do ads, even for content I want to know about, before I watch something (I'm fine with it afterwards).
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Bingo. I've had an account on Hulu since it was back in closed beta, but I never "upgraded" to their for-pay Hulu Plus service because they don't remove the ads. It's just there for when I feel like having something running on the second monitor and don't really care what it is. I don't care about watching the latest and greatest, so Netflix has me covered with years of content that I'll never get through fully. If Netflix stops being awesome, I'll hop over to Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, the rumored YouTube paid subscription, or one of the other services that competes in this space. If those end up being too costly or not-awesome, I'll simply start playing more games and working on more side projects.
At this point, I really don't tolerate paying places that treat me as anything other than a valued customer. As it is, for $5-10, I can...
1) Enjoy a 40-hour game from Steam.
2) Enjoy a film or two at the local theaters (yes, it's that cheap here).
3) Enjoy two or three rented films via streaming.
4) Enjoy an entire month of ad-free Netflix.
5) Enjoy a multitude of snacks while coding for fun.
6) Enjoy a light meal with friends.
7) Waste 20-25% of my time watching ads on Hulu for content I would have already paid for.
One of those is not like the other. Netflix is not just competing against Hulu, and they need to remember that. They're competing against every other hobby their users have. Right now, they treat me well and do so for a good price, but if Netflix wants to join Hulu in treating their customers as their products, then I'll gladly say "bon voyage".
How many times have companies told us that they do not plan to do something, only to do it a year or two later?