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Netflix 'Would Lose 57 Percent of Their Subscribers If They Added Commercials' (netimperative.com)
According to new research from marketing technology firm Audience Project, the majority (57%) of UK customers would stop watching Netflix if commercials were introduced, and even lowering subscriptions would cause a significant drop off of 42%. Here are some of the other key findings: - In the UK, Netflix takes the lion's share of the streaming audience at 70%, followed by BBC iPlayer (61%). Interestingly, YouTube, ITV Player and All4, all of which host ads, saw a decline.
- TV is still the preferred streaming device in the UK used by 42% of respondents.
- Streaming is on the rise particularly amongst the young, with almost as many 15-25 year olds streaming/downloading (63%) as watching traditional TV (65%) "This is proof, if it were needed, that Netflix is right to focus on growing through its investment in content rather than considering hosting advertising any time soon," Netimperative reports.
Martyn Bentley, Commercial Director UK at Audience Project, comments: "Our findings highlight the growing importance of targeting and relevance in advertising. As consumers have increasing choice over whether or not they see ads, both broadcasters and advertisers alike need to work hard to ensure that campaigns enhance experience, rather than detract -- plus it suggests that greater inroads need to be made with Connected TV as a means to help tailor advertising at a granular level."
- TV is still the preferred streaming device in the UK used by 42% of respondents.
- Streaming is on the rise particularly amongst the young, with almost as many 15-25 year olds streaming/downloading (63%) as watching traditional TV (65%) "This is proof, if it were needed, that Netflix is right to focus on growing through its investment in content rather than considering hosting advertising any time soon," Netimperative reports.
Martyn Bentley, Commercial Director UK at Audience Project, comments: "Our findings highlight the growing importance of targeting and relevance in advertising. As consumers have increasing choice over whether or not they see ads, both broadcasters and advertisers alike need to work hard to ensure that campaigns enhance experience, rather than detract -- plus it suggests that greater inroads need to be made with Connected TV as a means to help tailor advertising at a granular level."
I refuse to pay twice. That's why I have never given Hulu a cent. I don't care how great the shows are, or how much my kids will kick and scream.
Meh. The ability to track viewership really does not concern most people. In fact, most people understand that the ability to track viewership is important for ensuring that people can actually get the kinds of content that they like. After all, if nobody knows whether anybody is watching a particular type of show, what's the incentive to continue producing that type of show over some other type of show? And the more expensive the show is to produce, the more important it is to know that there are a lot of people watching to make it worth spending the money, so for things like sci-fi, tracking is absolutely critical.
Mind you, it would be nice to have an incognito mode in Netflix, for when you don't want something to affect your rankings because you think it might suck, but I have a separate profile for that. Beyond that, though, I'm pretty sure the only people who really care about avoiding tracking are watching porn. :-)
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
It turns off ads on youtube for roughly $10/mo USD
We watch most of our evening news as clips on youtube, stuff like the late show with colbert, last week tonight, cnn, msnbc, fox news etc and specialty channels all have ads now when you watch a segment.
Also useful for playlists of music, as we use our TV as a youtube jukebox when pandora isn't cutting it.
moox. for a new generation.
This raises the question of what's going to happen to video ads once broadcast TV goes away. If everyone's watching commercial-free services like Netflix, then where are people going to see these things? Are advertisers just going to rely on other types of ads, like on web pages? Print is dying as fast, although some audio streaming services have audio ads. Maybe it'll move to sponsorships, with the content producer talking about the product or having product placement.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
Back in the old days of television, commercial breaks were prime time for “potty breaks”. During hugely popular shows (e.g. Roots or the Super Bowl), there were anecdotes about large old apartment buildings having their plumbing fail because too many people flushed at the same time.
#DeleteChrome
Not on Android TV devices...
Besides, I prefer to pay for my content, especially if it's a more or less fair deal: get ads, or pay a reasonable fee to get rid of them. As soon as YouTube offered Red (or whatever they call it these days) in my country, I subscribed. We watch a fair amount of stuff on it.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
If they offered a reasonable ad-free option I'd take it. But $12/month is ridiculous. Way more that Netflix, for a start, and even if I cared about their premium content I wouldn't pay that much for it.
It seems to be because you get ad-free music, but I don't want that.
Give me ad-free normal YouTube for $2/month and I'm in. Otherwise I'm sticking with ad blocking.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
On Android you can use the open source Newpipe app for ad-free YouTube, or a hacked official YouTube app.
Unfortunately it's become impossible to block YouTube ads on smart TVs because they changed the way that the ads are served. They now come from the same domains as the actual content, and there are thousands of them, and even if you manage to block them it just causes the app to hang as it rotates through domains looking for one that works. A PiHole or similar is no longer effective.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
the ability to track viewership is important for ensuring that people can actually get the kinds of content that they like
I have never seen this mysterious feature to work in any way whatsoever for me on any site. Not even remotely. Amazon keeps pestering me with suggestions for things I've bought half a year ago, Youtube suggests videos I would never watch in my life and even if I click away all suggestions it will start with the same nonsense again after a while, and Netflix suggests the most awful and horrible movies on earth, because they have only like a few dozen movies in my country anyway and I've all the good ones ten years ago. Even their series suggestions are complete nonsense, merely based on what's new in their catalogue.
In all honesty, I don't even mind the unskippable ones in theory because they are usually very short (or at least can be skipped after a few seconds).
What I truly hate is when they are inserted into the middle of a stream where someone is right in the middle of speaking or what have you. While such breaks are, thankfully, very short, they still completely interrupt the flow of whatever one was watching, to such an extent that I sometimes have to skip back a few seconds right after the commercial and rewatch that part of the video (which doesn't replay the commercial, thankfully).
To be honest, I believe that if Youtube really wants to insist on ads like this being in a video, they should ask the uploader to ensure that there are scene cuts or otherwise suitable places in the video to insert commercials, and youtube can ask where the timing of such spots are when the video is uploaded. If an uploader cannot provide satisfactory locations for commercials to youtube, then the entire video should be blocked from being able to be watched for free until the uploader has modified it to be amenable to this process. Of course, the uploader should be advised that this is the case, as well.
Yes, I'm quite aware of how user-hostile this solution is... that is a design feature, not a bug... because IMV, it is still less hostile than inserting commercials right smack dab in the middle of people saying a sentence.... almost EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'