Hulu Pause Ads have arrived, but they will be still images instead of a video ad (via TechCrunch).
[Criterion Channel Coming to Apple Devices April 8]
Hulu Pause Ads
Most of Hulu’s 25 million subscribers are on the ad-supported plan, and they will soon see more ads other than the commercial-style ads.
Hulu Pause Ads will be subtle, like “a car billboard on the side of the road.” They will appear on the right side of the screen in an effort to be less distracting. Ads will be images and not videos because advertisers “don’t want to create a 30-second ad that the viewer doesn’t see because they’ve left for the kitchen or the bathroom, or because they unpause the show five seconds into the ad.”
Further, ads won’t show up on content rated TV-MA, and advertisers can target or avoid genres. Hulu Pause Ads will be launched in the second quarter of 2019.
This is what I want in Safari !! De-animated ads.
I don’t [very much] mind seeing an ad on a page. But I *hate* animated ads even more than blinking text.
Safari folks – you gave us “Reader Mode” which is great. Can we have “”sane mode” that shows only the first frame of an animated GIF, doesn’t run a video beyond the first frame, etc. That would be great.
YES! “Sane mode” is a great idea. It is absolutely maddening how it is essentially impossible to stop autoplaying video and animation in Safari. Sure, there is a setting for it – but the “never auto-play” setting simply doesn’t work!! I don’t know how web developers game the system, but somehow the act of scrolling down – or clicking a “close” box on some annoying pop-up – seems to allow web sites to autoplay video forever. Oh, and once you press play once, then they can autoplay as much as they like. 🙁
When you’re fighting against your readers, you’re doing it wrong. Yet that’s exactly what so many web developers seem to be doing! Now that web browsers block pop-up windows by default, many web sites create pop-up windows using javascript. Javascript pop-ups are just as annoying – probably even more annoying!! It’s a perfect example of web designers and publishers showing complete and utter contempt for their readers.