CK Hutchinson Holdings announced today that its mobile carrier Three Group is deploying network-based ad-blocking.
The holding informs that Three UK and Three Italy have successfully collaborated with Shine Technologies on implementing Shine’s ad blocker solution in their networks and unveils plans to expand the network-based adblocking to all other three Group operators currently operating in other four European countries (Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland) as well as in Hong Kong and Indonesia.
“Our objective in working with Shine is not to eliminate mobile advertising, which is often interesting and beneficial to our customers, but to give customers more control, choice and greater transparency over what they receive”, says the Chinese holding headquartered in the Cayman Islands, who also explains that “network-based ad-blocking is a more powerful and effective solution for customers than application-based technologies as it reaches a broader range of mobile advertising.”
Over the coming months Three will announce full details on the adblocking roll out.
Three Group is the second mobile operator partnering with Shine technologies to install adblocking tech at the
network level. In September 2015 Digicel, provider of communications and entertainment services to customers in the Caribbean and South Pacific regions, pioneered this kind of deployment with the aim of “making ad networks pay for the bandwidth consumed by the ads they serve”
Following the data provided in the PageFair-Adobe Ad blocking Report 2015, ad blocking, not only kept on growing fast on desktop, but it has also leaped onto mobile in Asia, and will soon go mobile in the West with the launch of content blocking on iOS.
Such deployments as that of Digicel and the current announced by Three Group, not only contribute to an even faster growth of adblocking, but also lends this phenomenon a different character. The network ad blocking turn into a company matter, that can change the way in which ad investment is done and ad revenues are shared. This will be no more just a consumer based choice matter, at least in the mobile field.
Three Group do not say it as crystal clear as Digicel, but may be searching for “ad industry, including publishers, pay”. Not a great problem for the big players such as WPP, for example. So has said the same Martin Sorrell (President of WPP). But the fact is that adblocking could well become a barrier to enter and keep operating in the market for small publishers and agencies. In the case of small and individual publishers adblocking neutralisation fees could affect their freedom of speech as they probably couldn’t afford them.
Players as Google, for example are already paying to some adblocking solutions developers. There are no common guidelines convened by ad industry players on how to face the issue, althoug IAB the WFA have created work groups to debate and find a common position. Meanwhile adblockers are reaching the network level.
Sure that neither Three nor Digicel are among the main mobile operators in the world by number of subscribers or revenues, but if the practice expands the issue turns darker for ad companies and publishers, even for small app developers.
The three main goals of Three’s network-based adblocking
Tom Malleschitz, Chief Marketing Officer, Three UK, said: “Irrelevant and excessive mobile ads annoy customers and affect their overall network experience. We don’t believe customers should have to pay for data usage driven by mobile ads. The industry has to work together to give customers mobile ads they want and benefit from.
These goals will give customers choice and significantly improve their ad experience.”
Customers not paying data charges to receive ads; full protection of the privacy and security of Three customers and giving users the chance to receive just the ads that are relevant for them are the three goals and reasons why for the network-based adblocking tech deployment, which where mentioned by Three Group.
In the case of Digicel making google and other adservers contribute to the costs of network deployment was also a reason why quoted by the telecom operator.
The official communication issued by CK Hutchinson Holdings explains as well that Three Group opted for the network deployment instead of providing an adblocing app because “network-based ad-blocking is a more powerful and effective solution for customers than application-based technologies as it reaches a broader range of mobile advertising.”
Adblocking 2015: cost for publishers around the world at $22Bn
The Page Fair-Adobe report estimates tat there were in 2015 198million active adblock users around the world and that this practice grew by a 41% globally along thelatest 12 months before the fieldwork for the report ended. Adblocking calculated cost for publishers in 2015 amounted $22Bn.
The growth of adblocking in the USA stood at 48% (penetration reached the 15% of the total population), wether the rise in the UK nearly doubled this percentage to the 82% (with penetration at 21%). Adblocking penetration in Italy was a 13% in 2015 and both in the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific countries stood between the 0% and 7%, leaving aside Autralia that scored a 18%, the numbers in the USA and Canada (20%).
Image over the headline.- Three Group outdoor display. ©Three Group.
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Digicel, to make ad networks pay for bandwidth through ad blocker
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