Today it was reported that both Hulu and AT&T are testing out full video ads when you pause a show. Now if you pause your TV show, AT&T and Hulu hope to place ads on that. This is nothing new but what is new is replacing it with a video ad that fills all or part of your screen. According to Variety, this could happen as soon as 2019.

Back in September, it was reported that AT&T planned to use their new advertising company Xandr to launch “shoppable commercials” that would pop up on the screen when you pause your show. These ads will take over your screen as an overlay and be an add you could click on to buy the product or learn more. According to Lesser these ads would use your viewer data to make the ads customized to your interests. Now it seems that banner ads were just the start as now these plans have moved into full video ads.

Customized ads to the viewer interests are not new. DIRECTV NOW, Sling TV, YouTube TV all already offer customized ads inside TV shows. These custom ads mean you may see an ad for a movie, but I see an ad for a local event. These ads are more profitable for companies like AT&T and allow them to sell streaming services at a lower cost and make it up with higher ad revenues.

Ads like these are not new TiVo, and ReplayTV introduced ads like this in early versions of the DVR. The question is now how will customers respond to new ads like this.

What do you think of this plan? Would that change your views on Hulu and DIRECTV NOW? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.

Source: Variety

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