We all want to skip ads during videos, but one company has a tactic to make sure you actually watch them. No looking away now!
The company in question is MoviePass 2.0, and if the name is familiar that's because it's been around since 2011. Albeit with a bankruptcy interfering with operations in 2019. The original MoviePass allowed users to pay a monthly fee to see unlimited films in the cinema. Needless to say this wasn't a financial model that was sustainable.
The company has now been revived as a Web 3.0 app, and it intends to make its money by Making. You. Watch. Ads. When we say "making" we really mean it. In what seems like something out of Black Mirror, MoviePass 2.0 uses your phone's camera to track your eyeballs to make absolutely sure you're paying attention. No skipping, no looking away to eat your lunch while the ads are playing. If you look away, the advert pauses. There's no escape.
Of course, this isn't without reward. Like good little pets if you watch the adverts and pay attention you will earn credits, which get transferred to a virtual wallet, which can then be spent on watching movies.
The service launches this summer, so we await to see whether users are willing to put themselves through it. However, we are looking forward to MoviePass 3.0, that will use head probes to make sure that you have actually taken in the advert information on pain of electric shock...