Two-thirds of Britons expect to access online content about current affairs and their special interests without paying for it, according to new research.
And while the vast majority understand there is a value exchange of data going on if they want to view websites for free, most are also dissatisfied by much of the advertising they are seeing.
Online advertising company The Trade Desk commissioned research from Appinio which asked 1,500 Britons about their online habits.
The research found that when it comes to current affairs, 10.9% of respondents said they subscribe to internet content. A further 8.3% said they occasionally pay for specific current affairs content.
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The proportion willing to pay for content rose when people were asked about articles relating to their interests (such as sport, showbiz, music and finance). Some 13.3% said they subscribe to read these sorts of articles with a further 9.1% paying occasionally to read this sort of content.
Some 41.9% of respondents said they subscribe to music streaming services and around two-thirds pay for TV streaming services.
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Some 40.3% said they would be willing to pay for high-quality content or to support content creators.
The vast majority of respondents (87%) said they would rather exchange some of their personal data than pay money to view content online.
But most also confessed to a less-than-optimum experience when it comes to the online advertising they have seen. Overall, survey respondents said only around 5% of online ads were relevant to them.
Currently, publishers try to ensure readers view relevant ads through third-party cookies which track them anonymously. Google is planning to switch off cookies on its dominant Chrome web browser and replace them with its own Sandbox system, a move recent research suggests could cost publishers 60% of their online advertising revenue.
The Trade Desk advocates “cross channel identity solutions”, technology that anonymously tracks users without the need for cookies thereby allowing publishers to target them with more relevant advertising.
The Trade Desk vice president Phil Duffield said: “Consumers want to maintain access to the free content they know and love. As an alternative to paywalls, they need an advertising experience that benefits everyone – consumers, brands and publishers. But the current offer is often falling woefully short of that.
“With cross-channel identity solutions such as the open-source EUID and single sign-on authentication tools like Open Pass in the market, publishers can claim back the control of their own monetisation, while reshaping the internet that’s an improvement on the consumer ad experience.”
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