With a growing number of people in the world gaining Internet accessibility, website administrators are finding new ways to make money off of previously free Internet content. YouTube has recently implemented advertisements more frequently in their site content. This is distressing because the sole reason why I choose to watch videos on a smaller screen is to evade the commercials.

It used to be that I would merely have to hit “refresh” and reload a video, ad free. This is not the case anymore; YouTube has now implemented a mandatory 30-second commercial for certain videos. Online advertisements used to consist of a myriad of pop-ups which would plague your computer screen with every click. Thankfully, the pop-up blocker was invented. Online commercials are even more infuriating because our generation is accustomed to using the Internet to get around the frustration of the increasingly intolerable, in-your-face advertising on televsion, not to mention the ever more popular product placement technique subliminally trying to persuade viewers into buying goods by endorsing them indirectly in the program.

It is understandable that advertisements are necessary to support the various media industries and will potentially allow more content to be available for free, but how far can advertising really go? As with the television, it has not taken long for people to realize the power of the Internet and its communication potential to an even more specialized targeted population. In fact, studies done by comscore.com show that online ad campaigns over the course of three months see a sales lift of nine percent, while television ad campaigns see a eight percent sales lift over the course of one year. That being said, it is inevitable that in time the amount of advertisements on internet videos will explode and there will be little comparison between a television and a computer in terms of commercial breaks. Luckily, there is good news. Viewers can evade the 30 second commercials by signing up as a site member and paying a monthly fee. This is good news for those who can afford another bill every month, but for those who cannot, the difference from watching videos on the Internet as opposed to on television will no longer be apparent.