Commercials/ads for subscribers? WTF?

I'm giving you money to not hear the cringey as "mess" commercials. Yet I'm hearing the cringy as "mess" commercials in my ears. What are you doing? Have you "messed" up the RSS like you've "messed" everything elese or what's going on?

Seriously, Jeff has tried to sell me stuff twice now, what is going on?

Is this the podcast?

Yeah I'm not sure exactly what you are talking about either, this post reads more like you had a few too many drinks and then went on an angry internet rant.

@mike: I'd listen to a response on the next aftermath, should fit right in.

There have been ads for Giant Bomb Premium lately on the podcasts...so maybe that’s the issue?

I’ve been premium for a good long while, but I still listen to the free feeds. At first it was for Jeff and Vinny’s legitimately great ad reads...now, I figure maybe keeping that subscriber number up helps in some tiny way?

Either way, I just sort of fast forward through the ads and go on with my day. I could update the feed, but ads in a podcast aren’t a big deal to me.

If that's the case it for sure explain why Skumberg wrote this thread.

@rocketblast0063: I listen to premium only these days because once Vinny moved away I kind of got over it. Yeah it's a funnier ad but it's still an ad. Out of the past however many months the only instance of ads in premium has been past weeks Bombcast where there was a lengthy ad for the sale. I kept thinking it was going to be somehow a funny gag for premium listeners but.. it kind of just sounded like an ad for the sale. Guess it was a little annoying because I already have premium, I don't need to be reminded that I can get it again, but it's not the end of the world.

Honestly as time goes on the GB premium is starting to turn into a bit of an Xbox Live obligation than honest to God passion for the site. I want to watch a few of the premium shows but a large chunk of them I don't care for or I used to care about but now with the office split and reshuffling of staff the host dynamic isn't there (for me). Primarily though my biggest pet peeve is the site redesign which was kind of a disaster? Like all the complaining they do of the XB1 dashboard times a hundred. Feels like the site is ever so slowly crawling back to a semi-enjoyable state of usage but man it's rough. Which I suppose is why getting an ad in the premium show can be like "yah yah I'll get premium for the few shows I want stop pestering me" rather than "heck yah Premium for life!"

It's a damn if they do, damn if they don't situation. The premium group is the most likely group to want to take advantage of a premium sale, so you want to notice them. After all, how many angry threads would there be if this sale passed those people by? Especially now that the actual site is not a great experience and most people access the videos through their apps & set top boxes.

The premium sale is the ONLY ad I've heard on premium, which as the previous person said, is because it is directed at both free and premium listeners. Surely we can all deal with 20 seconds or so for like 2 or 3 episodes....

If the only ad is for the premium sale, then it's there to let you know you can renew your sub at a discount instead of paying full price lol. And that's a site specific ad targeted at premium members, so they are not getting paid for it

Is this forum just turning into youtube comments?

@frytup: seems like it.

If you're listening on an iOS device, try downlaoding Overcast. There are options to skip ahead 30 seconds so you can quickly get through an ad.

insert [inappropriate racial comment] here

If you get normal ad breaks with Premium then that's bad since that is part of what you are paying for.

If it's just temporary ads for renewing premium then fuckin' relax.

Hey, [profanity], why don't you go get [sexual threat]?

Why don't you go back to your own video game website until you get your K/D over 2??

They really should have just mentioned the premium sale in passing rather than break out to a separate, long, ad section. It's those awkward breaks in the podcast flow where they shift from normal chat to sell you something mode that I don't want. I honestly don't care if they mention their premium sale itself, but cutting to just Jeff talking about it was some serious potato aim.

When I was a premium subscriber, on iTunes/Apple Podcasts I was getting ads on the premium feed of Bombcast in the last couple of months. But now always, just on some random episodes. I wonder if that's what OP was referring to.

You perfectly described my feelings on the site/premium lately. I didn't renew my premium subscription two weeks ago and I'm still deciding if I should do it during this sale or not. Nowadays it's definitely more of an obligation or a "maybe I might want to watch this show" than passion.

The question so obscure we've forgotten what it was.

Yeah I understand the concern but I can't really ever buy in to the internet move: "Lets jump ship from something I absolutely love because I was kinda inconvenienced?".

Only ads I hear are Jeff and Vinny telling me to wear my seatbelt, which I already do, and they should know that.

I honestly never knew premium membership came with ad-free podcasts; they're such an insignificant and skippable thing that I never even considered anyone at GB would ever be tasked with creating two versions of the same podcast for people who can't bear to listen to two people joking about seat belts. I feel like if the 40-80 hours of premium content every month isn't worth the 5$, but ad-free podcasts make it worth it, there's a weird set of priorities at play.

Staff seem to be taking the "ignore it until it goes away" approach to this. Seems a bad sign of the way things are starting to be run now.

Way to make a false narrative. Premium sales have been talked in the ad-free podcast since I can remember. The sales get talked about all over the place when they're on.

@nixamo: What part of what I said is a false narrative? In the Premium video podcast a few weeks ago, not this week (there is no premium video podcast this week), not last week, but the week before that. The premium video podcast goes to break, and a big ol actual ad comes up for the premium sale. Not them talking or making mention of it in the actual podcast, but an actual ad. Near as I can tell, staff have not commented on Premium members getting ads when they shouldn't be. If I'm wrong please correct me, or at least let me know what part was false.

Gotta say - they did this again this week, and it really sucked. First 7 and a half minutes of the premium Bombcast were an ad for Premium. It's a shitty thing to have a selling point be "no ads" and still do ads, full stop.

Premium goes on sale a few times a year and for a couple weeks at most. Everyone will survive a few episodes of the podcast with short ads for their own service.

Get mad if they try to sell you some Blue Apron or whatever.

It makes the podcast longer, ergo more value!

@efesell: as you said it’s not the end of the world - that being said..it shouldnt be a case of only getting inconvenienced sometimes as opposed to never. It’s just a matter of principle.

They advertise sales everywhere on the site so even if you don’t hear the ad on the Bombcast there is absolutely no way to miss it.

It does happen extremely infrequently but it’s good to point it out because otherwise it will keep happening. It’s like that penny rant Jeff did ages ago about a cashier not giving him his change and him agreeing but then being furious about it.

I listen every week to premium feed. I don't recall ever hearing an ad, ever. The only ad I if it's even an ad I have heard is them letting me know that Premium is on sale. Which is fine with me and I don't even count or consider an ad because I rarely if ever look at the site. I wouldn't know any other way.

Yeah, I subscribe to GB Gold, but still listen to the "free versions of podcasts". Some of the real comic gems come out of their advertising copy reads. I supposed people can 'take it' or 'leave it', but I will never stop listening to the "free version" for the reason above - I'd feel like I was missing out doing it any other way.

@monkeyking1969: I just kinda hope MAYBE it helps the site out a bit...I know they’re under CBS now, but I’ve been here since Arrow Pointing Down.

I can’t recall the last amazing ad read. The Small Business Man era was a goldmine of entertainment that no one should have missed.