This is the single biggest thing that puts a bad taste in my mouth from my Xbox. Am I a customer or a product? Companies should pick only one. If I pay money, I don't want to be sold.
Do you have Cable TV? 70% of America does, knowing that they are both customer and product.
The difference here is while cable has (for now) an iron grasp on content and monopoly in their coverage areas, gaming has competition.
I am. I don't buy their TV or phone service, but they provide the best internet connection in every place I have lived. They have consistently been cheaper and faster than fios, uverse and any DSL. I can run a server, they don't block ports, and my IP is effectively static.
Ever watched TV? Ever been to the cinema? Ever read a newspaper or a magazine? Get real.
Hint: One of those services has ads.
Bonus Hint: One of those services was released to game consoles and Roku in 2008 while the other was added late 2010, early 2011.
Speak for yourself, please.
In addition, you can easily get the same ad-free content on iTunes, but I never see it compared as a replacement for Netflix. It's just not as convenient.
For me, Netflix is better than Hulu. I wish I could pay more for Hulu's content with no ads.
For me, "The Magazine" is better than ad-subsidized magazines. I wish there were more like it.
I would pay Facebook to be exempted from creepy data mining and ads.
I would pay more to NPR to never have to listen to their insufferable fund drive again.
When a "kill the ads" in-app purchase is available, I buy it.
(1) Though as a side benefit the AppleTV devices uses a small fraction of the power that the Xbox 360 used.