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Comment by dreamcompiler | Hacker News Reader

> When the media device pauses the media content, the display device can determine that a pause event has occurred and insert an ad shown on the display device.

Hilarious. I love how all the streaming companies are hijacking the pause control now. Why do you think I hit pause? Pick one or more of the following:

1. I need to go to the bathroom.

2. I want to inspect the current frame more carefully.

3. I want to see an ad for psoriasis medication.

Hint: One of the above answers is wrong. Think about it and get back to me. I'll wait. (I did hit pause after all.)

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Nobody want to see adverts, yet it’s one of the largest industries on the planet.

Anyone who doesn’t do everything in their power to avoid adverts is part of the problem.

> Anyone who doesn’t do everything in their power to avoid adverts is part of the problem.

Says everybody until they are wanting to advertise their own product.

I'm still not sure the excessive 15x same advert method increases your chances.

If it didn't work they wouldn't do it (and when it stops working they will find something else). Advertising is pretty insidious. I have been adblocking most things for over a decade now and thought I was mostly saving myself from annoyance and wasted time, but in the last 4-5 years in youtube video ads from creators themselves showed up. I only discovered sponsorblock last year so I've only been using it for around a year and it's interesting to see my own unnoticed positive biases to brands where the advertising was previously sneaking through just melt away. Now when I watch a video that is too new or obscure for someone to have marked the ads with sponsorblock I am back to getting annoyed and wondering why I ever thought positive thoughts about this brand in the first place. If this stuff is having this effect on me (highly disagreeable personality, above average but not genius level intelligence, made a living trading commodities calling bullshit on the concensus opinion) then the rest of the world must be screwed.

> If it didn't work they wouldn't do it

You're assuming that most companies have decent metrics.

I am assuming spending as much as they are on advertising would weaken them to the point that a non advertising competitor would destroy them eventually. I don't see much of that so i assume it works. I also have my own noticed response to advertising to go on.

It only works for the FMCG segment and nothing else. This has been proven decades ago.

> If it didn't work they wouldn't do it

I don't know if I believe that... I can see companies falling for the politician's fallacy (We must do something -> this is something -> we must do this). They have money to spend to promote their product, advertising is a well known way to spend money to promote a product, therefore they buy advertising.

Hey, I've only dropped a couple products so far because their commercials annoyed me.

...because most of the rest were for products I already wasn't using.

If it's #1, at some point you will come back from the bathroom.

When you do, there will be a moment in between when you can see the screen but haven't hit play yet. This is a prime ad opportunity.

If you are watching with others, they may wait for you while you go to the bathroom. They will also be able to see the screen.

Sorry for not being any fun. I just think Roku is behaving somewhat logically here. (I say "somewhat" because there is one issue: speaking for myself at least, would never buy a TV that does this!)

4. I got a phone call and I want TV to be quiet for its duration.

HN comedy goes underappreciated

It depends. How accurate is Roku's guess that you may have psoriasis? Now repeat this exercise but replace Roku with Meta or Google.

It does not, in any way, depend.

How accurate they are directly correlates with how much pain I'd wish on whoever is responsible.

If your only options are "bad" and "even worse", that does not mean that one option is good. They are both, in fact, bad.

Number 02 is one of the major one i was thinking of. This shit is evil. I don't see them surviving long if they ever attempted to push this crap.

Eventually everyone will adopt this and there will be no escape from ads outside of jailbreaking your device and flashing oss software.

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