SEVILLE — With consumer web ad blocking seemingly on the rise, data on the practice ranges from the dystopian to the hysterical.

New eMarketer data this week puts a more modest assessment on current levels, pegging UK ad blocking at 14% of internet users in 2015. But its forecast rises to 27% in 2017, commenting: “Once seen as the preserve of the tech-savvy, early adopters and gamers, ad blocking has now moved into the mainstream.”

In response, publishers are scurrying, variously, to present better ads, add non-advertising revenue streams or simply to block the blockers. That’s a tactic a growing number of individual publishers are undertaking whilst, in France and Sweden, several publishers have teamed to jointly prohibit access to users detected to be running ad blockers.

It’s a move endorsed by WPP Digital president David J. Moore. In this interview with Beet.TV, he says: “Viewability continues to be an issue for most. The bigger sites are starting to recognise that (there is) a cost of revenue.

“If someone has an ad blocker, they can’t monetise them anyway so don’t let em in!

“The more websites that stop letting consumers visit with an ad blocker, the more that occurs, the less effective those types of companies will be.”

Moore is also chairman of Xaxis.

This interview was recorded at the I-com Global Forum for Marketing and Data Measurement in Seville, Spain, April 18 to 21. This video is part of a series from the Forum sponsored by Xaxis.  Please visit this page for more videos from Seville.