ORLANDO — Although the recent boom in subscription video-on-demand may suggest a customer base that is rapidly opting out of ad-supported media, consumers actually enjoy ads – but they don’t want to see them too often.

Those are findings from a new report commissioned by AT&T’s ad-tech unit Xandr.

Kantar surveyed 2,004 consumers from the “general population” for Xandr’s 2019 Relevance Report. It found:

  • 56% of consumers prefer to access content for free even if it means viewing ads.
  • 70% have accepted ads as a part of their media viewing experience.
  • 50% of consumers have a positive attitude towards advertising.
  • 51% recognize the service that advertising provides and agree that it is good for consumers.

However, it is not all good news. The survey also found:

  • 63% think advertising makes media consumption less enjoyable.
  • 3 in 5 will skip or block any ad they can.
  • 43% of consumers want opt-out tracking options.
  • 31% want to give feedback if an ad is not relevant to them.

Most of all, repeat exposure to the same ad is emerging as a bugbear. Seventy-five percent of consumers feel advertising has become more frequent lately.

“They’re really tired of seeing the same ad over and over again and they also notice it even more when that ad could be considered obstructive or intrusive,” says Jill Siegel, Xandr’s assistant VP for Business Intelligence & Research, in this video interview with Beet.TV

“Consumers don’t dislike advertising. They actually do understand that it needs to exist. For one, it subsidises their cost of engaging with content that they want.”

This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the ANA Masters of Marketing Conference in Orlando, 2019.   The series is sponsored by iSpot.tv.  For more videos from the series, please visit this page.