zlacker

>>ksec+(OP)
I'm wondering if this is going to be the start of a lower cost tier, or perhaps raising the price to watch without ads? I don't think Apple could get away with normal ads on Apple TV without an option to get rid of them, even if it's a light touch.

>>mholm+y5
This is inevitable for basically every media service whether its streaming music like Spotify, connected tv like Hulu, etc. You'll have a premium tier with no ads, perhaps a less ads but still some ads semi premium tier, and then an ads supported tier that is either free + ads or some small fee + ads. I know it's verboten to say this on Hacker News but it plays out this way over and over because some % of the consumers (read most of them) are actually okay with the trade off of having ads to pay less or pay not at all. This is even more pronounced outside the US where some markets are 99% ad supported. People should have the choice to pay for an ad free experience but its also okay for others to choose an ad supported one too.

>>jsonne+Ua
The issue is when there is no ad-free tier.

Cable TV started out ad-free. The content was paid for by subscribers. But that wasn't enough. Now cable TV is just as ad-ridden as broadcast TV.

Even Spotify will randomly shove an ad in my face when all I want to do is navigate to my playlist, and I'm a paying subscriber. I hate the way it interrupts my flow so much that I'm probably going to cancel them in the next month or so.