Reply to post: Re: If only I could pay

In defence of online ads: The 'net ain't free and you ain't paying

tfewster
Facepalm

Re: If only I could pay

Actually, the model is there, ironically embodied in Googles AdWords and music royalties systems.

Both you and the website pay for bandwidth used. So if ads are banned, that's a win-win.

For the content, the website could get paid for page views*. Sites that produce content cheaply (e.g. Wikipedia) make lots of money. Smaller sites with higher costs (e.g. El Reg) make a bit of money.

Who collects and distributes the money? ISPs take your money, can block content (ads) and track your usage anyway, so it would be trivial for them to do that.

How much will it cost me to go ad-free? US Internet advertising revenues** were $88Bn last year. Divide that by 70 million households*** = $1200 p.a. or about $100/month for ad-free Internet.

* If it's really expensive content, e.g. music or original research, websites can continue the paywall model. I'll pay if it's worth it.

** I presume that's how much websites take for displaying ads. But if their costs drop, their take could be dropped too.

*** For simplicity. As well as your broadband, you probably have 2+ phones that you pay for bandwidth for - all would be covered under the pay-per-view model.

Advertisers will still want to buy ad space, and website owners will still be greedy. Let the Market sort that one out.

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