Poll: Increased ads on Blip videos

[Sir Christopher McFarlane]

Recently, at least for me, Blip has begun adding more adverts to their videos. You may have noticed this while watching That Guy With The Glasses videos. They load one ad when you start and two more as the video progresses. That's three adverts per video.

 

[DoPo]

Eh, it's not TOO bad with longer videos. I'm talking 20+ minutes ones, I usually play some non-attention intensive game (say, tower defence) and watch a video. I can spare some time for the video to load and the ads to play in the background (I mute them and just play, then watch the video). And I can load up another video while the current one is playing.

Short videos, though, are awful. I recently decided to go back and watch some Ask a Ninja and those episodes are 2-5 minutes. I find it really obnoxious to have to watch ads so frequently, especially since I watch a dozen or so episodes at a time. And loading a bunch at the same time is just annoying, too.

 

[Sir Christopher McFarlane]

Hey, I didn't know Ask a ninja was from Blip. I used to watch on youtube.

Eh, it's not TOO bad with longer videos. I'm talking 20+ minutes ones, I usually play some non-attention intensive game (say, tower defence) and watch a video. I can spare some time for the video to load and the ads to play in the background (I mute them and just play, then watch the video). And I can load up another video while the current one is playing.

That's something I also do. When I actually want to watch the videos though, I find myself trying to see the content on other video hosts. Some of Blip's shows are also on Youtube. The Spoony Experiemnt is both on Youtube and hosted on Springboard on its site.
I wish they kept it to one ad per video. I think Blip may be shooting themselves in the foot, but I want to test whether people react as I do.

 

[an annoyed writer]

Ugh. I was tired of the ads on Blip TV videos already, but now it's just getting ridiculous. I rarely, if ever, watch blip tv vids because of it.

 

[badgersprite]

I don't really have a problem with it. It's just advertising. You can mute your computer or skip some of the ads if they're annoying, since some ads allow skips. At the end of the day, you're still getting a service completely for free because the ads support it.

I'm willing to endure a minor inconvenience if the revenue goes to the person who's video I'm watching. Doesn't cost me.

 

[DoPo]

Hey, I didn't know Ask a ninja was from Blip. I used to watch on youtube.

Eh, I'm lazy - I go with the official site usually rather than YouTube. Videos on official sites tend to be in order/categorised. Unless somebody made a YouTube playlist, I'd prefer having easy access to videos in order.

The Spoony Experiemnt is both on Youtube and hosted on Springboard on its site.

True but some videos are removed from YouTube. The middle two parts from the Ultima 9 review for example. Some others occasionally reupload the videos but I find them...lacking in ease - one guy had one of the videos but split into two and not labelled properly (it just said part 1/2 and then 2/2) and another had the other video but it was shrunk down - it had black border around it.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I don't like adverts but thankfully never see them. So this Blip thing is fine.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

The amount of ads on Blip is ridiculous and the lack of a functional skip option means you either have to reload the page in the hopes of getting a 30 sec ad or bite the bullet and watch a five minute ad. If at all possible I avoid Blip like the plague. Say what you want about Youtube, but at least they let you skip +30s ads.

 

[Something Amyss]

I really hate the way Blip is doing things these days. This is no exception.

 

[emillyorr]

I think that's my main problem, actually. Normally, I run Adblock, and while there are sites I will pause or disable Adblock for--because they're predominantly counting on banner ads and suchlike to survive--the Blip ads are just surreal. If Adblock is on: 90 seconds of nag screen. If Adblock is off, it's three ads in a row, with anywhere from 30 seconds to one full *minute* of screen time per each one, which means it's actually *less* annoying to be nagged by a text screen than deal with three ads.

If I'm watching something that's half an hour or longer, I can grit my teeth, but if I'm watching something that's only five or ten minutes long, my getting three one-minute ads for a phone I don't want, a store I'm never going to, or a clothing line I'd never consider is excessive and irritating.

 

[DRTJR]

If the adds are too long then I'll just play on my 3ds.

 

[Angie7F]

i dont use Blip videos. However the increase of ads in youtube has definitely impacted my usage of their services.
Nico Nico seems to be way better.

 

[Rednog]

I just stopped watching the content.
It was a tolerable thing when it was just an ad at the beginning. Then they threw in the one in the middle, fine I'll just watch the videos I really want to see...and now more. Yea, I'm done there's a certain point where I just have to draw a line.

 

[bug_of_war]

I'm pretty sure that the amount of ads on a video is determined by the creator. I may be wrong, but I have had people tell me that they have a degree of control over the placing and amount of ads put into their videos. That's why when you see people like Nostalgia Critic, they've now started working the ads into their shows.

I don't like the ads, but I just deal with it because it could always be worse and be a pay to watch.

 

[Something Amyss]

I'm pretty sure that the amount of ads on a video is determined by the creator. I may be wrong, but I have had people tell me that they have a degree of control over the placing and amount of ads put into their videos. That's why when you see people like Nostalgia Critic, they've now started working the ads into their shows.

I don't like the ads, but I just deal with it because it could always be worse and be a pay to watch.

There's also differing degrees of ads. Like, Mike J now has pop up banner thingies on his videos on top of an intro ad and the midroll ad. I think one other TGWTG guy I watch has this, but I can't remember. And because of the increased annoyance, I'm probably done watching his videos.

But yeah, you can select how much advertisement is done. Still, while this is true, it may be a very limited choice. I'm pretty sure a couple of the CA guys have commented on the pay scheme for ads having got worse, which may place much of the fault back at Blip. I especially wonder about this since Linkara's gone from saying he'd only do midrolls on especially long videos to doing them all the time and begging people to let the ads play.

Buuuuuut I don't know for a fact.

 

[Saladfork]

I think the only things I watch on blip anymore are the cinema snob's midnight reviews, which are usually 30-40 minutes long and usually have one ad in the front, one in the middle and one at the end (though of course that one is easily skippable). Do other blip videos have more? If so, I wasn't aware of it.

I did get rather irritated by the number of ads I'd have to sit through to watch a bunch of 5-minute videos awhile back, though. I wouldn't even have minded so much if they were different commercials, but they were all exactly the same one! EXACTLY THE SAME COMMERCIAL! Dozens of times!

 

[bug_of_war]

.
There's also differing degrees of ads. Like, Mike J now has pop up banner thingies on his videos on top of an intro ad and the midroll ad. I think one other TGWTG guy I watch has this, but I can't remember. And because of the increased annoyance, I'm probably done watching his videos.

But yeah, you can select how much advertisement is done. Still, while this is true, it may be a very limited choice. I'm pretty sure a couple of the CA guys have commented on the pay scheme for ads having got worse, which may place much of the fault back at Blip. I especially wonder about this since Linkara's gone from saying he'd only do midrolls on especially long videos to doing them all the time and begging people to let the ads play.

Buuuuuut I don't know for a fact.

I recall Linkara's video he put out somewhat recently addressing people using addblockers, and basically what he was saying is they're putting in more ads because more people are using ad blockers. So it's kind of like a self multiplying issue. Now, as for the whole, "We don't like doing it but Blip makes us do it" I call bullshit. If they really don't like Blip, than they should stop using their streaming services. If they're stuck in a contract, say so, but don't just pretend that there's nothing that you can do about it. There are plenty of video reviewers whom don't use Blip, so it's not as though it's their only option.

 

[soren7550]

Yeah, the vast increase in ads for Blip is really annoying. You've got the one in the beginning, one in the middle, one at the end, and the various pop ups that show up during the video that you may or may not be able to get rid of (I'm looking at you ad for reviewers on TGWTG that takes up more than a third of the screen). What gets really annoying is when they play multiple ads for the first three that you can't skip (or rather the same ad again), and (for me anyway) take quite a while to go through because for some dumbass reason it takes a while to load and play the ad. Hell, frequently it won't load the ad, so I'll have to reload the page and have to sit through the same goddamn ad several more times before I can try to watch the video.

Yeah, I know that the ads are how they make their money, and this really isn't a problem, but I still find it annoying, and I want to shoot whoever made those Virgin Airlines ads.

 

[Worgen]

If the ads are unobtrusive than that's fine whatever, but if you start shoving your ads in my face than I will take steps and may never give you another chance to shove said ads in my face again.

 

[Sir Christopher McFarlane]

If the ads are unobtrusive than that's fine whatever, but if you start shoving your ads in my face than I will take steps and may never give you another chance to shove said ads in my face again.

In Blip, it's the latter.