As ad-free services like Netflix and Amazon continue to gain steam, and sites like YouTube and Hulu offer subscribers the option to remove ads completely, major programmers like Time Warner, Viacom and Fox are looking at ways to reduce their advertising payloads.
According to a detailed article on the topic from Bloomberg, executives from major content companies are watching how customers react to ad-free options. "We know one of the benefits of an ecosystem like Netflix is its lack of advertising," Howard Shimmel, chief research officer at Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting, said in an interview. "Consumers are being trained there are places they can go to avoid ads." Article