Some VIP members said that after spending money, they still have to watch a variety of advertisements, which seriously affects the experience

  Why is the "ad-free" treatment for video platform members misleading?

  A few days ago, major video platforms have announced the suspension of advanced on-demand services for VIP members, which has been well received by many users.

However, there are still many members who say that they have paid the membership fee, and the "ad-free" treatment is not worthy of the name. Various forms of advertisements on the platform still pop up from time to time. There are even as many as 12 types of advertisements, which seriously affect their sense of experience. .

  Spent more than 200 yuan membership fee

  Still can't avoid ads

  "Today I was watching TV on a certain video site, and when I skipped to the next episode, there was an advertisement. I was thinking about how members still have advertisements, so I looked for the button to skip the advertisements, but I didn't find it, but found a line of ' "Member Exclusive"..." Recently, the netizen "Mo Wandou" shared his unique experience as a VIP of a video site on the Internet. He spent more than 200 yuan to purchase memberships each year, but he brought himself a "member exclusive recommendation".

  A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily found that members saw advertisements on video sites including iQiyi, Tencent Video, Youku, and Mango TV.

For example, in a popular online drama, members can skip the 1-minute opening commercial, but before the main drama, they will see a "small theater advertisement" and "post advertisement" performed by the characters in the drama; After playing, you will see advertising banners popping out like "Band-Aids" at any time, and the position will be on the left and on the top for a while; if you click Pause, a "pause advertisement" will appear in the middle of the page... Similar advertisements are still flooded The whole viewing process.

  VIP can turn off ads?

  The contract stipulates that there are 12 kinds of advertisements

  In fact, many consumers are members who recharge for "ad-free".

"The current video site is always 150 seconds of advertisements, which is 2 and a half minutes! I don’t want to waste time, so I recharged the advertisements. Who knows that I still need to watch all kinds of advertisements after recharging! Open the App to play the advertisements and watch a video. Advertisements and video endings are also advertisements, and some even have advertisements in the middle of the videos. It is unbearable." Netizen "underground" said that the website uses free advertisements to attract users, but the experience is still not good after recharging.

  A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily found that the aforementioned video platforms are targeting non-member users and will prominently prompt "VIP can close this ad", "members close this ad", "10 yuan close this ad," "members enjoy advertising privileges," etc. Suspected of inducing users.

  However, looking carefully at the "Membership Agreement" of the video website, each company has explained this kind of situation by default.

For example, some have almost listed as many as 12 types of advertisements that will exist: "In the process of using VIP membership services, you will still (may) be exposed to commercial advertisements in various ways, including but not limited to postings. Movie advertisements, start-up advertisements, creative mid-roll advertisements, marquee advertisements, end credits advertisements, placement advertisements, pop-up advertisements, pause advertisements, original photo stickers, oral banners, summary advertisements, band-aid advertisements, etc."

  Tencent Video’s customer service also said: “If there are some movies and TV shows that cannot skip the advertisements, it is because some copyright owners have special requirements for the advertising services provided by the movies or TV shows. If it is not an introductory advertisement, it is not within the scope of the member’s ad-free privileges. Please also Forgive me!"

  Expert voice

  The Overlord Clause is not binding, and the copyright party is also responsible for inserting advertisements

  In fact, the above situation has long been a common problem in the industry.

As early as 2019, the People's Daily and the Zhejiang Provincial Consumer Rights Protection Committee have already publicly criticized such behaviors.

The results of the questionnaire from the Zhejiang Consumer Protection Commission showed that "ad-free" is the main reason for users to buy members, accounting for 83.3%.

However, 71.04% of users said that after purchasing a member, they often encounter advertisements when watching videos.

Some advertisements put on the VIP "vest", and turned into "member exclusive".

  "After purchasing a member, a VIP exclusive recommendation is inserted at the beginning of the video, and it must be closed manually, otherwise it will continue to play." Ms. Jia from Heilongjiang is very dissatisfied with the practice of iQiyi video. Can it be called free of advertisements?" Moreover, time periods such as "Preliminary Summary" and "Next Preview" have also become the "hardest hit areas" for the flood of advertisements.

  So, as long as there is a statement in the contract, can the video site do whatever it wants?

"Since consumers have spent money to buy VIP services, they should provide VIP services as promised, and they cannot arbitrarily insert various advertisements," Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Protection Law Research Institute of the Chinese Law Society, told a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily. "The provisions in the membership agreement clearly exclude or limit the rights and interests of consumers and reduce the responsibilities of the operators. According to the "Consumer Law", it is an unfair and unreasonable provision that aggravates the responsibilities of consumers, which is what we commonly call the supremacy clause. , Are invalid clauses and not legally binding on consumers."

  Pan Helin, Executive Dean of the Institute of Digital Economy of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, told the Beiqing Daily reporter: “The formatted contract should be inclined to accept the formatted contract. It should be easy to understand and prevent misleading, that is, the understanding of the formatted contract should be Leaning towards consumers, the purpose of membership payment is to remove advertisements. The removal of advertisements should include all types, including these 12 kinds of advertisements." He also said: "But this matter is not just the video website solely responsible for it, partly. The copyright owner authorizes the film and television IP at a low price and embeds advertisements in the IP, which is actually a disguised IP price discount. In the end, the users of the video website still have to pay the bill by watching the advertisement again. It actually increases the user’s viewing cost."

  This group of articles / our reporter Wen Jing Coordinating / Yu Meiying