Netflix Will Not Show Commercials on Streaming Movies or TV Shows

Reader Andy was watching Stargate Atlantis: Season 2 Episode 2 "The Intruder" on his Xbox and noticed breaks in the show that could be for commercials, and about  57 minutes into the show he saw the following images:

 

The video was probably sent to Netflix by mistake, but I asked Netflix's Steve Swasey and he had the following to say, "No commercials or sponsorships at Netflix. Subscription Only." Unlike Hulu Plus, where customers pay a subscription fee and endure commercials.

Comments

[noor]

this happen to me on netflix.com also and roku also.

[Tomguy]

Glad to hear 'no commercials' on Netflix.

Hulu is sinking because of their increase in commercials, even with their new subscription service, Hulu-plus.

[Frank]

There are lots of people who would LOVE to have to watch a 10 second "Closed captioned provided by" spot if it meant Netflix actually finally supported CC...

I wonder who loses more customers: Hulu due to commercials, or Netflix due to lack of CC?

[Max]

@Tomguy I try and stay away from Hulu because the commercials are annoying. I remember they used to give the option to watch 2 minutes of ads before the show, or 4 or 5 during. That was nice but I never get the option anymore. If Netflix went to ads the appeal would be gone for me.

[nijaju]

As long as Netflix remains commercial free, I'll stick with Netflix. The same day I see a commercial on Netflix is the same day I cancel my account. Unless of course they drop their pricing to $0.00, then I'd stick with them because the only alternative is to pay money and get commercials.

Thanks Netflix.

[Steve I]

I just happened to watch this episode of SGA last night, what a complete PIA. The episode was 20 minutes longer than every other episode of the series I've seen, included the "cut to commercial" graphic and then 3 minute of dead black screen at intervals through the program.

Did I mention it was a PIA........

[FearNo1]

Wow netflix must really be taking hulu as serious competition since he mentioned hulu+ when the question had nothing to do with them.

[shadoh]

Hooray for commercial-free! That's why I'm PAYING. If I were getting FREE streaming from Netflix, I might expect ads. But if I had to pay AND put up with ads, I would seriously consider leaving NF.

[BP]

I was getting the same blank screens for a few seconds when watching an episode of The X-Files the other night. I assumed it was just Netflix being weird or perhaps there was an error in encoding the episode. I doubt they're stupid enough to listen to the five morons who read this blog that would just LOVE to have commercials on a service they PAY for.

Commercials mean I quit Netflix. The end.

[Tester]

I wouldn't believe Steve Swasey anymore than I would believe the world is going to end today. In fact, I believe the world has a greater chance of ending today than the chances are of that POS Swasey telling the complete truth without putting some sort of spin on it.

[Fohf]

The day I see a commercial on a streaming Netflix movie is the last day that I will have Netflix.

But they can go ahead and test me if they're not sure. I'll just join the next competitor that doesn't have commercials.

[chris]

@ fohf,

and who is the competitor that doesn't show commercials? Right now, that is just Blockbuster. And really they just show theirs at the beginning of the DVD (future shows/movies). So, that really is just an empty threat. Unless you plan on going with no one.

[BP]

@ chris

The name of the competitor is... bittorrent.

[niceboobies]

Greencine (www.greencine.com) is a viable alternative. But not for the imbeciles who claim to have seen everything and only clamor for new releases. Of course the catalog is nowhere near the size of netflix nor do they have streaming nor are they as quick in delivery of said movies, but if commercials were to be included into my netflix package (unless of course that price becomes $0) I'll drop them in a second and use Greencine along with redbox and other easily obtainable methods including what BP just said.

[baron]

I guess it depends how you define commercial. Frontline episodes regularly have "underwriting" credits at the beginning (which I don't mind); The Beavis and Butt-Head episodes have flat-out commercials for the dvd sets (of B&B) (????). Of course, practically everything has paid product placement.

[Shelley]

Wow, these comments...conspiracy theory, much?

This was just a video rip error. I already reported it.

You know folks, if you have video where the times for the commercials was not removed, and 10,000 or so other videos without these spaces -- do you think you might safely assume the spaces were an error?

[Rob]

Thank you, Shelley! Yes, I just assumed that when Netflix got that ep, they either forgot to delete the "spaces" for the commercials or didn't realize they were still there. Since the other eps (so far) seem fine, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and simply report it to them so they can (hopefully) fix it.

[NFL Jerseys]

this is a good write-up. I'm NFL Jerseys going to mail this to my friends. I come here while searching on aol I'm sure i'll come back. thanks for sharing.

[Jerkwasser Jacques]

Hey, Shelley--sarcasm much?

If you don't want comments, turn the comment function off.