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Comment by rcthompson | Hacker News Reader

From the article:

> the few listeners who do skip ads continue to remain engaged with the episode, rather than dropping off at the first sign of an interruption.

I'd bet that this is because fast-forwarding through podcast ads is pretty trivial. If podcast apps tried to do anything to make the midroll ads unskippable, you'd probably see a different pattern. (Here I'm thinking of things like online video ads and the TV networks' fight against the TiVo 30-second skip button.)

For my part, I often skip through ads that I know have no relevance to me, but listen to ones that might have relevance. It also helps that many podcasts bring their own humor to the ads rather than just reading the ad copy verbatim, so there's still some entertainment value even if I know I'm not going to buy what they're selling.

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I suspect why the majority of people don't skip is because the ads themselves aren't terrible. The worst aspect of ads is repetitiveness, which is why Hulu with ads is unwatchable. Of the podcasts I listen to which are typically rated high on popularity, the ads typically aren't repetitive: they feel ad-hoc since they are done differently per episode, where it's almost like it's part of the entertainment. The only repetive ads I'm aware of are from Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History, which start to get tiring because they are exactly the same episode to episode.

You're kidding me, right? It seems like every mainstream podcast is supported by ad money from mail-order mattresses or mail-order meals.

The NoSleep Podcast is the only one I've heard that dresses these ads up a bit. Even then, I still pay for the season pass so I don't have to listen to them.

I think at least some of it is how podcasts are consumed compared to other media. I (and I think most other people) listen to podcasts while doing something else, (jogging, washing dishes, driving, etc), which both makes pulling out my phone to fastforward through ads difficult, while at the same time, its easy to just shift my focus to whatever else I'm doing until the ad ends, making them less annoying.

I listen to 2600 podcast and the ads can take up the entire show during a pledge drive but not in every show twice a year and it feels fun.

Bill Burr (the comedian) has his own take on this problem.

He makes reading the ads so entertaining they become a part of the podcast -- a very entertaining part! Nobody skips that.

Though to be fair, sometimes he shits on the product he's "advertising" so hard that they pull their sponsorship. Oh well. The brands that stay reap the benefits -- his version of Dollar Shave Club, MeUndies, ZipRecruiter, or HelixSleep are totally contagious.

Don't forget Sharisberries, based on his read of that ad I always thought they were some small time etsy-esque store, turns out they're part of a gift selling conglomerate. Also his dyslexia makes the reads even funnier.

Some podcasts have relatively short ads at unpredictable times. I listen to those 90% of the time. Some podcasts do live reads that are predictably 3-4 minutes long, which feels like an eternity, especially when they're doing the same ads they did last week. I skip those every time.

It seems like many podcasts also have an unspoken agreement with the listener about ads and make them easy to skip. Two popular podcasts come to mind:

WTF with Marc Maron: always plays a guitar riff after the ad, which is easy to hear when skipping

MBMBAM: has a “shoutout” section (listeners sending messages to each other) immediately after the ads, so if you skip into it you don’t really care if you miss a minute or two.

MBMBAM does sponsor ads (read by the hosts), then the shoutout section which I hate, and then usually two ads by other podcasts in the network. Once the sponsor ads start, I can then simply skip ahead until I hear an unfamiliar voice, then more carefully jump forward until I get back to the show. This is pretty much essential for me, because both the shoutouts (jumbotrons) and the plugs for other podcasts are written with the "OMG QUIRKY!" knob turned up to 11 and I just can't handle it.

Edit: The Greatest Generation (Star Trek podcast) is on the same network and has a somewhat similar format, except they don't do the ads until they're almost done. They talk about the episode, then do sponsor ads and shoutouts, then they do one of two options: "Drunk Shimoda" segment followed by ads for other podcasts, or vice versa. I assume this is to prevent over-zealous ad skipping but really it doesn't take much effort.

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