Autoplay outrage, now with added hypocrisy
The tragic shootings in the US this week have cast autoplay video into the spotlight after social media users were inadvertently exposed to some pretty harrowing footage posted by the gunman.
A report on news.com.au, lifted from the New York Post and headlined ‘Users rage after on-air murder autoplays on social media’, noted how many users had disabled the autoplay feature on Facebook which “could cut into revenues, at least in the short term”.
The elephant in the room though is the autoplay video on the story, replete with a pre-roll ad.The video itself is of murdered reporter Alison Parker talking about her career, family and aspirations.
In case you’re wondering, you can turn off the autoplay feature on news.com.au by clicking on the settings on the top right of the video player.
I am constantly turning off the autoplay feature on news.com.au, do they automatically re-enable it after a few days?
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Easier to get a flash blocker that lets you click to enable.
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Fairfax’s assets are just as bad.
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news.com.au and fairfax mastheads won’t turn off autoplay anytime soon. . Autoplay generates the bulk of their video views. And even so,they are still light years away from the big players (youtube, facebook, broadcasters) when it comes to video traffic (and therefore revenue)
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Why wouldn’t News and Fairfax utilise their YouTube channels, which are fast compared to their archaic video? (Embedding them onto their sites for all video.) That way users would get the experience they are used to. News / Fairfax would gain revenues from YouTube. Oh and build their reach on YouTube too…
Whats that? They charge so much more on their own, slow, awful, video players? Oh I see? Then as a client, why on earth would I put video on News or Fairfax, when I can on YouTube? I know where I would be investing my money.
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@ embrace or die? because publishers who stream their video via youtube have to share the revenue with youtube, and youtube sets the ad rates, not the publishers. But you’re right: youtube is probably a lot more attractive to an advertiser — lower ad rates, much bigger audience, much better targetting capabilities.
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@mitch. Nine times out of ten though, the video that does grab my attention on Fairfax, or News, like Hayne playing NFL, or something quirky or viral, I click on it and it takes ages (for the advert to load), so I just search Google and click on Youtube and watch it there… They are doing themselves zero favours. They could be building global brands utilising platforms that get used and people love using.
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@Embrace or die? – me too. I don’t want to watch a commentator or a slow intro. I just want to see the damn content the article discusses.
That’s why I always search for the raw content on Google, then click the video search tab. Presto!
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