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A theory of two-sided markets where media platforms can price discriminate among both advertisers and consumers. An increasingly common practice among media platforms is to provide premium content versions with fewer or even no ads. This practice leads to an intriguing question: how should ad-financed media price discriminate through versioning? I develop a two-sided media model and illustrate that price discrimination on one side can strengthen the incentive to discriminate on the other. Under this self-reinforcing mechanism, the ad allocations across different consumer types depend crucially on how much nuisance of an ad “costs” consumers relative to the value it brings to them. Interestingly, higher-type consumers, who value content and advertising quality highly, may see more ads than lower-type consumers if the nuisance cost is relatively low. Furthermore, the standard downward quality distortion generally fails to materialize in a two-sided market and may even be reversed: higher-type consumers may be exposed to too few ads that result in a lower total quality than the socially efficient level, whereas lower-type consumers may receive a socially excessive quality. The circumstances under which the self-reinforcing mechanism may be weakened and the implications for media platform design are explored.

On YouTube, skippable in-stream advertisements (ads) are critical income for both YouTube and content creators. However, ads inevitably irritate viewers, and as a result, they tend to avoid ads. Thus, this study attempts to identify potential mitigators—source attractiveness and reciprocal altruism—of ad irritation and avoidance in the context of YouTube skippable in-stream ads. Using an online survey (n = 512) in Taiwan, the proposed model is examined by a partial least squares structural equation modeling analysis. The findings show that while ad irritation has a positive effect on ad avoidance, reciprocal altruism can significantly reduce both ad irritation and avoidance. However, source attractiveness fails to mitigate ad irritation and avoidance. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed, and several solutions for reducing ad irritation and avoidance are provided.

While numerous people use social mobile applications, ads within these apps are often avoided. Although the significance of prior negative experience and personality traits in impacting consumers’ perceptions and behaviors has been acknowledged, limited research has explored their influence on ad perceptions and avoidance. This study aims to examine the effects of prior negative experience and personality traits on ad perceptions and ad avoidance of Generation Y (Gen Y) and Generation Z (Gen Z) within two prominent mobile social apps: WeChat and TikTok. An online survey was used to gather data from 353 Chinese Gen Y and Gen Zers who were active users of WeChat and TikTok. Findings from several regression analyses show that prior negative experience is an essential determinant of ad avoidance, influencing not just directly but indirectly by diminishing perceived ad personalization and intensifying perceived goal impediment and ad clutter. Personality traits also significantly affect ad avoidance, with conscientiousness exerting a positive effect, whereas agreeableness has a negative impact. Notably, agreeableness, emotional stability, and openness to experience moderate the associations between ad perceptions and avoidance. Intriguingly, the effects of these factors are platform-specific, with WeChat’s main factor for ad avoidance being erceived goal impediment and TikTok’s main factor being ad clutter. Based on these findings, the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

PurposeSkippable video advertising offers users the option to skip directly to their desired video content after viewing a limited amount of advertising and is becoming a format increasingly preferred by advertisers. This study constructed a mediator model based on advertising attitude to examine the influence of users' perceived control and perceived intrusiveness on brand attitude and advertising avoidance intention in skippable video ads.Design/methodology/approachThe study considered the structural equation model using a self-reporting measure method. The research model was tested using a sample of 302 respondents.FindingsThe results showed that perceived control positively affected ad and brand attitude and negatively affected advertising avoidance intention. Perceived intrusiveness negatively affected attitudes toward the advertising and the brand but positively affected advertising avoidance intention. Ad attitude and brand attitude had no significant influence on advertising avoidance intention. The results also confirmed that ad attitude mediates the path from perceived control and intrusiveness to brand attitude.Originality/valueThis study further enriches the theoretical development of skippable video ads and expands the perspective and scope of interactive advertising research.

Generation Z (Gen Z) consumers require special consideration because they are a distinct demographic, are less receptive to mobile advertising, and have not been thoroughly studied. This study seeks to advance ad avoidance research by creatively examining Gen Zers’ perceived ad risk and ad avoidance in mobile applications (apps) and the role that risk attitude and time pressure play in these phenomena. The formal study was conducted in March 2023 via an online survey, and 312 sample data were identified for data analysis. It was found that there is a positive relationship between Gen Zers’ perceived risk and their avoidance of app advertising, with time, performance, and privacy risks being the primary advertising risks. Gen Zers perceive higher advertising risk when they are under time pressure or are risk-averse, and time pressure is a more vital indicator of perceived risk than risk attitude. Time pressure also significantly affects mechanical avoidance (e.g., using an ad blocker) more than behavioral avoidance. Still, the risk attitude only positively affects Gen Zers’ behavioral avoidance of app ads. This study concludes that ad avoidance can be reduced by reducing users’ perceived risk and time pressure. Also, ads should be placed based on consumers’ risk attitude. Future research needs to validate these findings in other cultures, compare Gen Z to other generations, and consider the consequences of ad avoidance.

 The use of YouTube as a medium of social networking to promote the products proved to be quite effective, yet sometimes it can cause disruption to the users. It is due to the advertisement has interrupted the streaming activity, causing annoyance and displeasure followed by avoidance. Regarding with the problem, this study examined the feelings while response to ad impressions on YouTube. The population of the study is including the YouTube users in Indonesia. Questionnaires used for collecting data which is involving 105 samples of 263 samples that had been spread on colleges and government offices in Surabaya. From the results of this study, it can be concluded that: (1) ad intrusiveness significantly affect ad irritation; (2) online experience does not significantly provide impact in weakening the relation among ad intrusiveness and ad irritation; (3) online experience significantly impact on weakening the relation among ad intrusiveness and ad avoidance; (4) ad intrusiveness significantly affect ad avoidance; (5) ad irritation significantly affect ad avoidance; (6) ad avoidance does not significantly affect the attitude toward the brand.     The use of YouTube as a medium of social networking to promote the products proved to be quite effective, yet sometimes it can cause disruption to the users. It is due to the advertisement has interrupted the streaming activity, causing annoyance and displeasure followed by avoidance. Regarding with the problem, this study examined the feelings while response to ad impressions on YouTube. The population of the study is including the YouTube users in Indonesia. Questionnaires used for collecting data which is involving 105 samples of 263 samples that had been spread on colleges and government offices in Surabaya. From the results of this study, it can be concluded that: (1) ad intrusiveness significantly affect ad irritation; (2) online experience does not significantly provide impact in weakening the relation among ad intrusiveness and ad irritation; (3) online experience significantly impact on weakening the relation among ad intrusiveness and ad avoidance; (4) ad intrusiveness significantly affect ad avoidance; (5) ad irritation significantly affect ad avoidance; (6) ad avoidance does not significantly affect the attitude toward the brand.

The practice of unsolicited advertisements on social media has grown prevalent. This data article presents 837 US-based social media users’ consumer perceptions of such advertisements. Understanding how consumers perceive unsolicited advertising is vital to developing effective digital marketing strategies. Data collection was via an online survey adopting multi-measurement items from extant studies for reliability and validity. The data showed high internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha testing, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) found the measurement model valid. Goodness-of-fit indices showed a good fit with the data. Finally, convergent and discriminant validity was confirmed using the composite reliability, average variance extracted (AVE), and correlations among constructs. Further research may utilise the data using inferential analysis techniques to add to our understanding of consumer perceptions of unsolicited advertising on social media.

Audience measures serve as the basis on which billions of dollars of television advertising are purchased each year. However, these measures often fall short of providing marketers and media planners with information about the size of the audience that has the opportunity to see advertisements during commercial breaks. Although program audience measures remain relevant for product placement, the size of the gap between the audience potentially exposed to programming and the audience exposed to commercial breaks has implications for advertisers and networks, affecting decisions such as program selection and ad pricing. The authors use a full television season of live tuning data to study variation across programs in the size of the program audience and the size of the gap between the potential program audiences and the potential commercial audiences, which is found to exceed 20% of the program audience in some cases. Across program genres, the authors find that dramas have increased program popularity and reduced ad avoidance, whereas reality television experiences increased ad avoidance. The analysis reveals the importance of incorporating show-specific random effects because their omission can result in spurious attribution of differences in ad avoidance and program popularity to genre. The authors discuss the implications for networks and advertisers.

With the prevalence of smart devices and wireless Internet, privacy has become a pivotal matter in governmental, academic, and technological fields. Our study aims to understand Taiwanese university students' privacy concerns and protective behaviours in relation to online targeting ads and their habitual smartphone usage. Surveying 810 valid subjects, our results first propose that ad relevance has direct bearing on attention to ads. Second, ad relevance inversely correlates with privacy concerns (i.e. descending personal control and surging corporate power) and protective behaviours (self-filtering and ad evasion). Third and finally, neither privacy concerns nor protective behaviours have a negative bearing on habitual smartphone usage. Opposite to previous research, our study concludes that Taiwanese college students exhibit zero privacy paradox, owing to no signs of privacy concern incited by mobile targeting ads, no evidence of significant protective behaviours, and no decreasing habitual smartphone usage out of privacy concern and protection. Our findings indicate Taiwanese university students' shaky awareness of potential risks and crises from exposure to vulnerable online privacy management. To deal with this, we suggest educating youths' understandings of digital jeopardy by experts is urgently needed more so than just technical tutorials of privacy settings.