BGonline.org Forums

Ustream and Advertising - To Block or Not to Block?

Posted By: Michael Petch
Date: Saturday, 9 July 2011, at 11:02 p.m.

First off, it appears that a browser with a good Ad Blocking program will eliminate the ads on Ustream. I never use ad blockers myself so with Firefox I downloaded the popular Ad Blocker Plus "Add On" and all the ads have disappeared (One can assume you can probably do this with IE and its ad bblocker or 3rd party addons as well). This seems to include both the 30 min ads and the ads that get overlayed onto the video stream. This may be the reason some users don't see the ads. It probably has less to do with the browser and/or location than it has to do with the Ad blocking capabilities that may be in use.

I generally don't block ads myself because I am well aware that although annoying they are a revenue source for a lot of sites that provide premium content to its users. Blocking Ads is legal but if everyone were to do it then services may be inclined to go subscription only or reduce their free offerings (Something that has been quite common over the years).

I've now paid $48($4/month) to Ustream for a year of Ad-less streams.