Say farewell to the good ol’ days of uninterrupted binge watching. Netflix will soon be adding commercials.
According to the New York Times, the streaming giant is playing with a feature that inserts 10-20 second ‘promotional videos,’ encouraging you to watch their other programs. The videos would come on between episodes of whatever show you’re watching (in the same spot where the “Are You Still Watching?” box pops up.
Netflix wants to be very clear that these are not commercials. They’re promotional videos.
But I think we can all read between the lines. Sure, right now it’s just promotion for their other shows. but before you know it, they slip in a pizza delivery notice. Certainly you want pizza when you watch TV, right? It’s not a commercial. It’s a personal recommendation.
The good news! You can opt-out of the ‘Promotional Video’ test. Here’s how:
- Go to netflix.com/DoNotTest
- Login to your Netflix account
- You’ll see a toggle switch that says “include me in tests and previews.” Switch it to “off”
- Get back to re-watching Riverdale for the 40th time
You won’t see the ads, but you will be cut off from any other features that are in test mode. If you want to remain in test mode (who knows? Maybe they’ll come out with something cool), you can always use that handy “skip” button.
