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from the that's-what-I-wanted-to-hear dept.
Ads have long been part of the trade-off for users of the free Web, but the rise of ad blockers is making it increasingly difficult for publishers to sustain that ad-supported model.
That's according to a report published Monday by Adobe Systems and PageFair, a startup focused on assessing the cost of ad blocking and proposing alternatives.
While PageFair clearly has a vested interest in illustrating the negative effects of ad blocking, the findings of its study with Adobe are difficult to ignore. Most notably, ad blocking will cost publishers nearly $22 billion this year, it reported.
Ad blocking has grown by 41% globally in the last 12 months, the report found, amounting now to about 198 million active ad-block users around the world.
There were some interesting geographical differences highlighted in the report, too. For instance, in the U.S., ad blocking grew by 48% over the preceding 12 months to reach 45 million active users by June. In the U.K., ad blocking grew by 82% to reach 12 million active users over that same time frame.
Meanwhile, those numbers will surely be on the rise on the mobile side, Adobe noted in a blog post, given that Apple's iOS 9 will likely include ad-blocking features in Safari by default while Adblock Plus is already available in limited beta for Android.
Ad blocking represents "a major, growing problem for both digital publishers and marketers," said Greg Sterling, vice president for strategy and insights with the Local Search Association.
In many ways, the ad-blocking phenomenon is a response to security and privacy fears that have arisen in the culture at large and a rejection of the state of advertising on the PC internet, Sterling said.
(Score: 1) by termigator on Wednesday August 12 2015, @09:06PM
The TV and radio industry has operated all this time for advertisers without the need to track exactly what people were watching and listening. The type of ad is driven by the type of show. If a sporting event, beer and v1agra. If a kids program, toy commercials. There is no need to track folks on a per-person basis to effectively advertise.
I think the push to track people on an individual basis, which sounds like the holy grail for advertisers, may lead to consumer blowback. And if tracking is not enough to stop the abuse, then security considerations will. I do not have to worry about my computer being comprised when watching ads on TV.
(Score: 2) by Nollij on Thursday August 13 2015, @11:30PM
While there is certainly a lot of that going on, you'll notice there are a TON of ads that are aired like a shotgun blast. Every channel, every time slot. Major companies, like Ford, Coke, etc. Strangely, some of these even seem to be targeted, but at a different demographic. Easiest examples of this are the truck ads, featuring country music, airing on a heavy metal station. It's the same ad airing everywhere else, but it is noticeably out of place here.
I will say, though, that the different ads shown do say something about the viewers. Apparently, everyone watching cable news (all of them) in the morning is in desperate need of catheters; people watching ESPN need liver pills. And anyone watching anything during the day needs an injury attorney.