To build on what you're saying, I'd also like to pay publishers for content instead of viewing advertising. However, advertising has two useful features. 1. It

To build on what you're saying, I'd also like to pay publishers for content instead of viewing advertising. However, advertising has two useful features. 1. It provides a default way of paying publishers without any action by the consumer (i.e. the see an ad if they don't set up a payment system) 2. It establish a price for viewing the content, (i.e. the price that an advertiser would pay to show you an ad) For reason 1, I can see how it is necessary to have an advertising option as a default to get the ecosystem rolling. However I really, really hope that users would get the option of paying publishers directly instead of seeing ads. This is where reason 2 comes into play, it provides a market price for us to pay for the content we consume - just pay what an advertiser would pay.