Discovery+ subscription has changed to include ads?

[scottish_guy]

While watching the Snooker Shoot-Out the last few days, I have noticed the previously "ad-free" feeds (basically the linear channel but without the ad breaks at the defined points) are now being loaded with ads. These are pathetically easy to skip (close and reopen the stream in question), but initially I had no idea why the ads were being displayed. If I use the snooker as an example, preivous tournaments this season have not had any ads on these ad-free feeds.

It seems that Discovery+ has sneakily updated all of the subscriptions without notifying anyone at all that the previous "ad-free" sports coverage will now have ads on them. The subscription name has updated from "Discovery+ Sports and Entertainments" to this confusing mess of "d+ MVPD premium ad-lite + sport (Monthly)"

The question is, were Sky informed that the plans would be updated to include ads? As I have no emails from either Discovery+ directly or Sky to inform me that my subscription would be changed materially in this way. £31/month for linear channels -- which often show football and pushes every other sport off to Discovery+ or non-existent Red Button feeds -- and Discovery+ showing ads devalues the subscription for me (I bought TNT solely because of them closing down Eurosport channels in Feb 2025).

The material unannounced change of the subscription will make me consider cancelling TNT Sports through Sky once this snooker season comes to a close in April. Paying 2.5x more than a YouTube Premium subscription for a worsening experience is not worth it.

[xenon81]

Discovery+ has included ads in all its UK packages since February 2022. Since then there has been no ad-free package available, even for Sport.

https://support.discoveryplus.com/gb/Answer/Detail/000004113

[scottish_guy]

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@xenon81 wrote:

Discovery+ has included ads in all its UK packages since February 2022. Since then there has been no ad-free package available, even for Sport.

https://support.discoveryplus.com/gb/Answer/Detail/000004113

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Then please explain why I've been using Discovery+ for the past 3 years and have NEVER had any ads on the Discovery+ sport feeds, under its previous guise of Eurosport and even when it moved to TNT? I have loaded up hundreds and hundreds of ad-free snooker feeds on Discovery+, including the 2024 Summer Olympics, and at no point were these feeds injected with ads at ad-breaks.

Quoting an article is all good and well, but it quite literally doesn't match my experience whatsoever, and its never been the experience of literally anyone else I've asked in the snooker community for the past 3 years of people who have been using Discovery+.

[TimmyBGood]

@scottish_guy 

So they've started selling advertising space in that particular content now.  The point is for several years it's been possible, whether or not it actually happened in what you've been watching.

https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/discovery-plus-adds-adverts-sports-tier/ 

[MarkGoldsmith]

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@TimmyBGood wrote:

@scottish_guy 

So they've started selling advertising space in that particular content now.  The point is for several years it's been possible, whether or not it actually happened in what you've been watching.

https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/discovery-plus-adds-adverts-sports-tier/ 

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And WDB could certainly do with the extra money that would come in from these additional ads they are now selling.

[nolte]

Just out of curiosity, on the adbreaks in snooker, do they take it at breaks in the action or is it during the action?