‘Pause Ads’ Creep Onto Hulu, Peacock and Max as Streamers Seek New Revenue

variety.com:

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Time for a different sort of commercial break. Any subscriber to the ad-supported version of Hulu is bound to encounter the usual assortment of TV commercials that regularly interrupt a binge-watch of anything from “Only Murders in the Building” to “NYPD Blue.” Sometimes, a different sort of pitch pops up.

This one only surfaces when users stop the action on their own to take a call, grab a snack or hit the bathroom. “Need a break?” asks an on-screen graphic from Procter & Gamble’s Charmin during a halt in one recent stream.

The toilet paper’s colorful bear mascot makes an appearance. “Enjoy the go.” There are other ads with similar themes. One on-screen entreaty for Hershey’s Kit Kat shows one of the candy bars in pieces and says, “Have a break.” One from Berskhire Hathaway’s Geico tells viewers to “Hold the phone.” So-called “pause ads” — they only turn up a few seconds after a viewer has decided to halt the programming, and not every time one does — are seeing new movement in the streaming world, with the format appearing more frequently on Hulu since July, according to Josh Mattison, senior vice president of management and operations for Disney Advertising.

Pause ads are also in motion in venues such as NBCUniversal’s Peacock and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max. As more media companies seek to goose subscriber rates by offering cheaper ad-supported versions of their streaming services, this type of commercial may become more handy.