ABC to Cram More Ads Into Web Video?

ABC will test inserting multiple commercials into ad breaks for primetime shows viewed through its broadband player next week, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The move would break the norm of having a single advertiser within a longform web vid and begin the downward spiral toward making web video as irritating as oldteevee.

Albert Cheng, executive vice president at Disney-ABC Television told The Reporter, “It would be premature for us to say people only want one ad.” He continued: “It’s a likely sort of thinking, but we want to push it a little bit to see how it would go.”

Umm, most people want no ads, but accept them as a necessity to keep the content free. But once companies get a taste of those sweet CPMs, they can’t help themselves. I’m all for capitalism, but not at the expense of convenience. Web video is about speed; each commercial is another bump in the road and another excuse to click off somewhere else.

To be fair, Disney is just researching the notion, and Cheng said that if users don’t like the additional ads, the company will come up with something else.

But what do you think? Would you stick around through extra commercials? How many is too many for you?