I hate ads, period. My lovely wife and I don’t watch much free-to-air TV but the few shows we do watch are recorded and viewed at a later time so we can fast forward through the interminable ads. We only have one Pay-TV provider here in Australia– Foxtel. I subscribe to Foxtel and, apart from live sport and movies which are uninterrupted by ads, all the rest of the shows are riddled with ads, equally as bad as free-to-air TV if not worse. Once again, we record all the shows on Foxtel and watch them at a later time so we can fast forward through all the ads.
I am a huge English football fan- you know, the real football, referred to here in Australia and in the U.S. as “soccer” (stupid bloody name). A couple of years ago one of our top telecoms (Optus) won the broadcast rights to the English Premier League and European championships. I subscribed immediately and enjoyed watching the football streaming via an Optus app. Then, a couple of months ago, Optus started injecting ads into the matches, 1- 2 ads before kick-off and 2- 3 more at halftime. To make matters worse, the ads are embedded in such a way that they can’t be fast-forwarded. I was mortified. I didn’t sign up for and agree to pay $16.00 per month to watch ads. I consequently canceled my subscription. Did I mention I hate ads?
Ads And The World Wide Web
I remember many moons ago when the World Wide Web was a pristine, virtually ad-free environment and a pleasure to surf around. Terms such as “third-party tracking cookies” and “targeted advertising” were unheard of. Then, as the reach and scope of the World Wide Web expanded, advertising agencies and consultancies came to realize just what a perfect medium it is for advertising. Now, the web is awash with ads. So much so that the sheer number of ads across almost all websites led to the advent and subsequent proliferation of ad-blockers. The irony is that for many sites, especially smaller sites such as DCT, ads are the sole source of revenue. Without the ads, sites such as ours could not meet our overhead and it would be highly unlikely that we could survive. In fact, ad-blockers have already caused the demise of many sites.
I use an ad-blocker myself but I whitelist any sites that I visit frequently because I know, from firsthand experience, what a devastating effect ad-blockers have on those sites’ revenue streams. Trust me, we at DCT hate the ads as much as you do but, for us, they are a necessary evil. So, if you enjoy reading our articles, you can do us a huge favor by whitelisting our site through your ad-blocker. If you think about it, it’s a very small price to pay for what is otherwise completely free.
I hate ads, we hate ads, no doubt you’re not fond of them either. However, for sites such as ours to survive and remain free, we simply cannot get by without them.
Cheers… Jim
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I don’t at all mind ads from certain websites like Dave’s Computer Tips because the ads include pertinent, useful information that I find relative and interesting to computing. I appreciate your efforts to educate and inform your readers.
Thank you,
Thomas Geiger
Thank you Thomas, appreciate your comment.
Jim,
I am with you. I hate adds as much as the next guy. I do realize some websites need the add revenue to survive and I do not block smaller sites I visit regularly.
Most adds I can simply ignore, passing over them without so much as an acknowledgement they are even there. Some of these sites have started to employ tactics to jam adds into the article making themselves annoying. This has me even less interested in the company sponsoring the add.
Lets face it. Adds only target less than 10% of the reading audience. The rest of use are just not interested.
Here is a novel idea. How about putting half there effort into making interesting adds. Ones that people would watch out of interest. They still can get the name of their product in there multiple times.
A few advertisers have actually done this, but then they just flaunt the add so much your interest turns to hate. So counter productive.
Ah, I will bring my rant to a close. Have a good add free day.
Hi Tom,
Most smaller sites, including this one, rely on Google AdSense for revenue. We do have some control over the placement of the ads but not much and zero control over content. Google is in charge. Still, if it wasn’t for their AdSense advertising program we (DCT) could not survive. It’s pretty much a catch-22 situation.
We do try very hard not to be too in-the-face with the ads as we realize from our own personal experiences just how off-putting they can be.
Amen to that.
Good day mate. You are preaching to the choir when you say you dislike ads. Continue to block ads while whitelisting certain sites like DCT. My blocker allows me to quickly go from blocking to allowing. Since you have a problem with skipping embedded ads, have you tried connecting the storage device you used to record your shows to a computer and use vlc.. This works for us, Mindblower!
G’day to you too MB,
Good suggestion. However, unfortunately, there is no storage involved- the video is streamed with no option to record.
Hope you are staying safe and well mate.
Hi Jim,
I will stand beside you in stating that “soccer” is a stupid bloody name to describe the only real and true football game, because it beats me to understand why a ‘ball’ game using a leather ovoid in the hands can be called football, and reduced to the general name “footy” only heightens the stupidity.
My Aussie wife is 100% happy watching English football, and with Express VPN connected to UK ITV and BBC iPlayer we see many great British programmes, inc. Premier League & Match Of The Day.
(Current Express VPN Aussie deal, $6.67 per month for 12 months plus 3 free months.)
I have been an English foorball fan as a child since my father and uncle rode me on their shoulders to every local match every Saturday.
As for ads, not only are they monotonous and annoying, the ad creators have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous, which, with the sound off it’s almost impossible to understand what the hell is the product they are trying to flog.
Thank for the interesting subject.
Regards,
Jonno.
Ads on websites do not bother me as much as on TV. I pay around $100+ to stream TV over the internet, and commercials have gotten so bad that for every 3 to 4 minutes of show, you get 4 to 5 minutes of ads. And I pay $$$$ for this? Not to mention that the streaming services are getting revenue from subscribers as well as from advertisers. There should be a law about this….either lower your subscription fees or lower the amount of advertisements. Unless a show REALLY captures my attention, I am a channel surfer…watch a show until a commercial comes on; then, on to the next channel. If the next channel is already showing a commercial, on to the next channel, and so on. There are some streaming services (one in particular) that is so bad that I can go through their entire offering of channels in about an hour or two. This has to got to stop!