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I agree that TV stations and websites don't have to be purely vessels for advertising, but in today's climate of slim margins – due to an expectation that every

I agree that TV stations and websites don't have to be purely vessels for advertising, but in today's climate of slim margins – due to an expectation that everything is 'free' – and sliding ethics, advertising lends more and more bias to operations. And that bias has been there as long as there has been advertiser funded operations. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/news_hole https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/news_hole We could just return to a culture of paying for things (that are conspicuously not tracked) and this whole imposition of advertising in our daily consumption can go away. But the vast majority of people simply don't care.

michael9423 2y ago
I think ads should not be allowed for anything at all in the digital world, including TV. In a world without ads, products would be known due to reputation. Ads are an assault on the limited resource of attention. People say how can new products reach people, but the solution to that problem isn't ads but platforms/websites that catalog new products and allow for easy discovery. Ads actually make the problem of finding new products worse because you only see a fraction of new products if you consume ads, primarily those from companies that already have lots of money to invest into ads.
- h0l0cube 2y ago
  It’s a nice dream, but enough people have to be willing to pay for things in preference to tolerating ads to not pay. Streaming services and some online news services provide this option, so it’s available. But asking for everything to be free and ad free is wishful thinking, at least outside government funded media (which is still paid by taxes)
  - account42 2y ago
    > Streaming services and some online news services provide this option Temporarily, before they inevitably add the ads back in even for paying users.
felurx 2y ago
Public service broadcasting is pretty nice too. (Of course it shouldn't be the only model, but I think it's often overlooked.)

michael9423 2y ago

I think ads should not be allowed for anything at all in the digital world, including TV. In a world without ads, products would be known due to reputation. Ads are an assault on the limited resource of attention. People say how can new products reach people, but the solution to that problem isn't ads but platforms/websites that catalog new products and allow for easy discovery. Ads actually make the problem of finding new products worse because you only see a fraction of new products if you consume ads, primarily those from companies that already have lots of money to invest into ads.

h0l0cube 2y ago
It’s a nice dream, but enough people have to be willing to pay for things in preference to tolerating ads to not pay. Streaming services and some online news services provide this option, so it’s available. But asking for everything to be free and ad free is wishful thinking, at least outside government funded media (which is still paid by taxes)
- account42 2y ago
  > Streaming services and some online news services provide this option Temporarily, before they inevitably add the ads back in even for paying users.

felurx 2y ago

Public service broadcasting is pretty nice too. (Of course it shouldn't be the only model, but I think it's often overlooked.)