With the advent of Peacock TV, we finally have details on the $10/month ad-free Peacock Premium service, dubbed Peacock Premium Plus, which was marketed as a great service with no ads, as opposed to the $5/month Peacock Premium, which displays 3-5 minutes of ads per hour. In contrast, it was marketed as a great service with no ads and worth the extra $5/month. It turns out that is not exactly true.

This morning, when I went to sign up for Peacock Premium to try it out, I noticed an asterisk in the wording "All Peacock Premium, no ads*". So I scrolled down.

"*Because of streaming rights," it says, "a small amount of programming will include advertising (Peacock Channel, events, some shows and movies). What does that mean? Well, it reminds us that certain TV programs will be broadcast "with limited commercials in between."

That's neither a treat nor ad-free. With rare exceptions, you pay twice as much to get something. This reinforces the status quo of television viewing, which is not surprising given that Peacock is owned by NBCUniversal.

Frustratingly, however, this is not necessarily surprising or new.

This is much like the "ad-free" Hulu tier, which has its own asterisk that says "*Hulu (ad-free) plan excludes some shows from the streaming library that show ads before and after the video." This is an annoying exception and leaves me a little less inclined to always sign up for Hulu.

YouTube Premium was my preferred ad-free experience... Until it wasn't. However, a closer look at the benefits of YouTube Premium reveals that creators can embed "branding and promotion" into their content. For example, the cooking show "Bingeing with Babish" briefly introduces Squarespace before the show begins.

I am not too upset about the ad spots on YouTube Premium. However, I don't get too upset when I see ad spots on YouTube Premium. Because most of them are independent creators trying to secure a source of income.