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Hulu, AT&T To Test 'Pause Ads' In 2019, Automatically Playing Commercials When You Hit Pause (macrumors.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MacRumors: Streaming TV services offered by companies like Hulu and AT&T are testing the waters for a new type of advertising called "pause ads." The idea behind pause ads is that instead of facing forced commercial breaks at specified interludes, users would be more accepting of ads that play when they choose to pause a show for a bit while they do something else. Hulu says it plans to launch pause ads in 2019, but not much else was given in the way of details regarding which of its numerous streaming plans will include the new type of commercial. The plan likely to see pause ads is Hulu With Limited Commercials, which interjects a few ads throughout a show's runtime, similar to live TV, but again this hasn't been confirmed.
AT&T cited similar interest in pause ads, stating that it also plans to launch technology in 2019 that plays a video when a user pauses a TV show. For both companies, it's unclear exactly how long these ads will run for, and if you'll be able to immediately cancel them out by simply hitting the play button and resuming your TV show. According to Hulu vice president and head of advertising platforms Jeremy Helfand, pause ads will not be home to longform advertisements, but will instead focus on commercials where advertisers "have seconds" to deliver a message effectively. Over the next three years, Hulu expects "more than half" of its advertising revenue to come from these so-called non-disruptive experiences.
AT&T cited similar interest in pause ads, stating that it also plans to launch technology in 2019 that plays a video when a user pauses a TV show. For both companies, it's unclear exactly how long these ads will run for, and if you'll be able to immediately cancel them out by simply hitting the play button and resuming your TV show. According to Hulu vice president and head of advertising platforms Jeremy Helfand, pause ads will not be home to longform advertisements, but will instead focus on commercials where advertisers "have seconds" to deliver a message effectively. Over the next three years, Hulu expects "more than half" of its advertising revenue to come from these so-called non-disruptive experiences.
users would be more accepting of ads that play when they choose to pause a show for a bit while they do something else.
And how much do they expect advertisers to pay for ads that people are guaranteed not be watching - because they're doing something else?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
They are just wanting to waste your bandwidth and charge you MORE.
IDIOTS with pointy hats!
This is really easy, if there are forced ads I will attempt to block or skip them. If that's not possible I will skip the content. I've been spoiled by DVR, downloads, ad-free streaming, and other methods of viewing shows without ads. I'm not going back to watching ads ever.
So I won't be able to freeze it if I want to take a look at a shot. Great! Can't wait.
The absolute #1 reason why I pause a show is because of a phone call or talk to a person in the room with me. The entire point is to take attention away from the TV, AND TO CANCEL ALL AUDIO INTERRUPTIONS. So now they want to take that control away? Meaning now instead of just a "pause", I must now "pause and then mute"? Yeah, it may seem like nitpickiness, but it is enough to deter me from even considering to use their services when there are alternative services that don't have these pitfalls.
And how much do they expect advertisers to pay for ads that people are guaranteed not be watching
Isn't that pretty much the case today? Seems like I already get a lot of ads I am not looking at already. :-)
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So I can't pause the video to study a scene in detail. Great! Can't wait
#PauseMeansPause
You realize half the time you are pausing is for a phone call, or to listen to someone interrupting your show, and all of a sudden now you're turning down/off the volume instead because pausing it no longer helps you hear whoever is interrupting you.
This seems like a half baked idea from people who don't understand their target demographic, or the technical limitations of their cocaine fueled bad ideas.
I hit Pause or 'Freeze' to literally pause or freeze the video that's playing, not to have it stop playing what I was watching to start playing something else. Either I want quiet to talk to whoever just walked into the room or is shouting at me from another room, or maybe the phone is ringing and I need to take a call, or maybe I want to freeze frame what I'm looking at to admire the greatest rack I've seen in a long time. Sometimes I just want things to stop to focus on something else with no distraction, maybe a game I'm playing on a tablet, who knows. Whatever the case may be, Hulu and AT&T have decided to undermine a classic viewing function and replace it with their profits and that doesn't sit well with me at all.
In another few months while the neutrality bullshit is tied up in courts the ISP's are just going to outright block competitive services. In fact the last time I tried Hulu the programming didn't work but the advertisements streamed great.
Any kind of advertising is basically a rape of the eyes and ears. There *is* no non-disruptive advertising.
I pay money to NOT GET ADS. That was the selling point of cable and streaming, free to air needs ads to survive, PAYING for it means no ads right?
No. Now you pay for it AND get ads!
One of the reasons that proprietary players are so unacceptable, is because they might do user-hostile stuff like this. If your service requires a proprietary player, then all the people who give a fuck about being abused, are already pirating all your shows and watching them completely ad-free, on a standard player.
But not many people give a fuck about being abused. Most people are fine with it ..... somewhat.
I think this ads-during-pause idea might help people reevaluate their preference for abuse. And personally, I'd like to see more people leave Hulu, Netflix, etc over the "I have to use your software" issue. More people should be pirating, so I welcome Hulu and AT&T attempting to persuade their users come over. And we'll all win, because hey, more seeders/uploaders/etc.
If only there was some way to completely avoid this by just closing the browser tab / app and then reopening it later.
Dang, I guess we'll never be able to avoid these ads.
Hasn't MX Player been doing this for several years? The version I used last certainly did. Or is this "new" because a streaming service is doing it?
Um... That's a big no shit you're just now realizing.
I knew it. God invented the MUTE button for a reason. Pause then MUTE, no need to hear some ad for something I can't afford anyway yammering away in the background.
Bandwidth is expensive where I live. Nowf I have to pay to see the ads they're wanting to shove down my throat?
users would be more accepting of ads that play when they choose to pause a show for a bit while they do something else
Where's the proof? I went through the entire source article and there was no proof anywhere that backed up these claims. The only way I could see this being even remotely true is if people were polled on it, and the only reason they would prefer this type of advertising is because they know they can just hit the mute button and open another browser tab and ignore the ad.
I think this is a stupid idea any way you slice it. I would bet the marketing response rate for this would be very low.
Annnnd back to being a pirate once more so I can skip your stupid fucking ads that I don't want to watch. I pay for the services so I don't have to see ads, do this and you'll not only stop getting my sub money but I will pirate your shows and watch it without ads anyways.
Uh, when I hit pause it's because I'm answering the phone or something and I need quiet. So now I must hit pause AND mute? This would frustrate me to no end. It's funny how every 'development' with regards to playing video just pushes people further into piracy.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
May as well drop it from the line-up one this rolls out.
to ensure I blacklist your site.
As if life can't be any worse, the content providers find a way.
Most of us are perfectly fine with the idea of paying for content. Not just because it's the legal way to get content, but because we want to be able to support further creation of that content. But we have a finite tolerance for being fucked with by multi-billion dollar media conglomerates just so they can get another few cents of of advertising revenue from each of us on top of what we're already paying. Especially given how common it is for advertising to be played at a volume significantly louder than the audio of the shows we're watching.
You want to know something funny? I was actually looking for an excuse to cancel Hulu last night. I was flipping through hulu last night noting there was nothing on there I wanted to watch. The only reason I didn't cancel it was because I wanted to finish out Lastman Standing.
Amazing how things can change in 24 hours.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
I hit pause because I don't want to see your ad. Not because I want to see a different ad, I don't want to see any ads.
How much coke do you not only have to snort, but to offer up to your boss, to make anyone think this is A Good Idea (tm).
reeeee fsck reeee reeeeeeeee fsck reeee
reeeee slashdots reeee reeeee slashdots reee
ree filters reeee reee filters reee
fsck slashdots filters
step one
fire up your linux box
step two
fire up etherape on nic one
step three fire up etherape on nic 2
step four
fire up wireshark-gtk
log the ip traffic, sift the traffic for adservers, copy and paste those addreses into a nice ipset like this one for eztv, 1337x, and limetorrents popup servers
pastebin.com/17ZQusjH
fine tune as needed...
I'll take pause ads over forced ads. I route my TV through a receiver so I can always mute it, and being able to to watch a show with with no ads is more appealing than forced ads. I am usually leaving the room when I pause anyway, so it really won't impact my viewing. Now, when they include a remote that listens to hear the ad I'll change my mind. Then when I pause to answer the phone to find out I have viruses on my computer and they need my CC number to fix it I am screwed...
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Didn't Fox buy Last Man Standing? (So, you can't be "finishing" it because more will be made.)
If you can afford it, please do the world a favor and keep your subscription for another couple of months, until the feature goes live. If you cancel now, you're part of the baseline cancellation numbers. If you cancel after this goes into effect, you're part of the "cancelled after X" cohort. If that cohort is big enough, compared to the baseline, they'll walk it back.
So, cancelling now makes this feature look more popular to statistics than if you never cancelled.
We know this works because Hulu tried making iDevices not output video over HDMI. They saw higher cancellation raters among people who "upgraded" to that client. It was so bad, they rolled back that "feature", and HDMI output works again.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
Agreed. My very first thought was that ads while paused was a creative alternative to other revenue sources. (Unfortunately, film crews don't work for free - not the crews who produce good shows).
As you said the audio thing is the catch. If I hit pause, quite often I want the thing to be quiet because I'm answering a call or whatever. This would be a good time to put up a still photo ad, like you'd have in a magazine or on a billboard.
I will either mute when I pause or just exit out of the show and resume it so I do not have to hear the ad.
Ban all the actual content and just show ads 24/7 :|
Because this is how you get a bullet through the screen.
It's like they don't want people watching their content.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
The most pressing industry wide problem right now is failure to standardize common interfaces for interacting with streaming services.
What are needed are common interfaces universally supported by streaming providers enabling seamless management and content aggregation across all subscribed / competing services.
People are not going to tolerate todays ridiculous practice of an "App" for every streaming service with it's own interface and isolated content silo forever. It's already getting quite old with current level of fragmentation and when people start trying to leverage "chaos" of delayered interfaces for shit like this .. pause = ads... it's only going to piss users off even more.
All the cord-cutters who really went from the cable TV 'cord' to the Internet 'cord' (and now still pay for TV, 'streaming' or not) will at some point scream and throw fits because eventually the commercials will be at least as bad if not worse than they were on cable TV. I may just laugh myself to death if they do something like prevent you from muting your sound or minimizing your browser when the ads come on; guess you can just turn off your speakers/take off your headphones, and turn off the monitor if it bugs you so much.. oh, wait, I know what they should do: make you solve a CAPTCHA within a certain amount of time after a commercial ends, otherwise it plays another commercial. xD Then you'll have to be paying attention one way or the other. xD
Once again I see I made a great decision so many years ago when I bought my first TiVo, a Series 2, and later on, dumping cable and getting an antenna. I can download anything else I want to watch, or wait for it on Redbox. Turn on TiVo's hidden 30 second skip, and I rarely see any commercials of any kind, and what I do see doesn't make it into my consciousness anyway.
However, given what they’re proposing, fuck 200, up to as much as 250% of that shit.
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If I'm hitting pause to answer the door or my phone or otherwise do something that requires a quiet background, I don't want automatic ads to start playing. Especially when ads are typically louder than the shows.
keep it up, guys.
it just shows me, continually, that the pirate bay is the only way I'm going to consume media, from now on.
the so-called proper sources want to annoy you, to NO END. literally, no end; the war on your sanity has no end. marketing and sales people have no souls.
and so, I've given up even trying to 'play by the rules'.
you'll get no money from me. enjoy your advertising-filled world. I want no part of it and I'll use all the tech I can to filter your bullshit from my view.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Now you pay for it AND get ads!
How long have newspapers and magazines been using exactly this business model?
just show ads 24/7
What else do you think QVC, HSN, Amazon, and eBay are?
I don't like ads period.
Corporatism != Free Market
Put a physical switch on the speaker wire.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
remember when cable had no ads? its a SLIPPERY DAMN SLOPE
Hulu, AT&T test way to make pirated TV shows more popular.
So basically fuck it once, turn it over and fuck it again in the other hole. Then in the mouth with only half your dick for the final 50%?
Wasn't MX Player doing this 5-6+ years ago already...?
-Myke
...generally involves me reading something, so I want to concentrate on reading it hence why I paused, or me leaving the room for something.
In the first instance, I don't want anything playing. I hit "PAUSE" in order to, well, PAUSE what's playing. Not to invite something else to play that will continue to distract me from concentrating on what I want to concentrate on.
In the second instance, well it doesn't matter as the first instance takes precedence for me.
Basically, don't do it, guys. It's a stupid idea that will end up just causing your users to hate you even more than they already do.
When do i start getting paid or a discount for the 24/7 advertisement watching?
At$t is behind the times. Black mirror already made an episode about this and its creepy af
I guess I'll have to hit pause and mute to answer the phone or have a bathroom break.
But instead of trying to coordinate your systems and departments, making sure your left and right hands are working together, you're looking at ways to show people more ads? My patience is not infinite, and I will find a better TV provider if you don't get your ass in gear.
Automatically steals passwords when you hit pause.
Automatically runs cryptominer when you hit pause.
Film crews don't work for free - which is why I pay for HBO. A reasonable arrangement, and no ads other than product placement. But you usually cannot have a movie without some 'products' so that is reasonable.
Of course the device will have a microphone to verify that all the important messages will be audible. Just as MS needed a always on camera on XBox1 to avoid showing content to too many people at a time. Never underestimate the idiocy and greed of media companies.
or maybe I want to freeze frame what I'm looking at to admire the greatest rack I've seen in a long time.
Bad move, shouldn't have said that! When you pause, you'll notice she had a brand name tattooed there. Ads find a way.
I just checked pricing for HBO. For just a one channel it's $15/month, plus you have to buy a service that offers HBO as an optional add-on. No thanks. Not for me.
I'd rather have a picture of Tide show up when I pause the video, rather than pay $15/month per channel.
I see the merit of their theory that if you are pausing a show you might not mind a TV commercial, but when I pause a show I want it paused -- total silence, and when I resume it I want to watch my show. If you start knee-jerking throwing up commercials when I pause or unpause that is just going to infuriate the hell out of me worse than normal commercials so I'll definitely cancel the service.
Pause it to shut it up and it doesn't.
Cancel service immediately over embarrassment.
"Non-disruptive."
LOL.
Most of the time I pause, it's to talk to someone in the other room or even to take a "phone call". (My Android actually has a function to connect voice-to-voice, amazing!).
I frequently pause to hear something someone has to say. If I had this feature, I would then have to pause _and_ mute. No thanks. Just another innovation in making advertising more and more odious.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Nuff said!!!!
:-)
evil anyways, what was I thinking? Oh, BTW, I NEVER will or have buy anything from an Ad that's been forced fraked to me.
Dear Mr. Freer, PayTV is for paying for programming without commercials. With the addition of pause commercials, will you eliminate or reduce viewers' subscription fees? May viewers opt out of pause ads? If not, why not? Will your addition of pause ads result in complicity between Hulu, AT&T* and other payTV providers to do likewise? In other words, will your implementation of pause ads trigger a collective end to commercial-free payTV. *Obviously you're already complicit with AT&T.