I am using a firefox add-on to stop most of the auto playing and I envision that this type of tool will start seeing a lot of demand in the near future.

Unfortunately, it’s here to stay. At the end of the day, commercial websites are a business, and unless users completely boycott a page and traffic falls off the table (which we haven’t seen) revenue will rise from employing lucrative autoplay ads.

we are really against autoplaying sound on home pages. it forces users to search for volume or mute controls instead of grokking your brand!

on internal pathways to different sections of a multimedia heavy site it can be more acceptable…

cory, your mailbox is full!

where do i send the check?

It does take the thing a little while to load, so it doesn’t really start immediately and because I experience a delay no matter my connection, I’m under the impression that they’re not at the top of the web.

So, if you were to ask me, I’d say that they’re probably wasting bandwidth because before the thing can actually start, I’ve surfed on to their next subject-specific page.
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BTW: I thought I’d also mention that I like the way WRAL has done it. Their homepage video doesn’t autoplay, you have to actually click for it to start. And, what makes this doubly worth the mention is what happens when you click the “more videos”; Try it and you’ll see what I mean.

Oh and for the benefit of our friend; WRAL loads both via their call letters and as theraleighchannel, which is something we were told in a previous discussion.

The short term gain financially just doesn’t balance against the long term loss of viewser visits and goodwill to the site.

Professionally: We used to post sweeps promos on the home page that automatically played, but we had enough complaints from our customers that we decided the ill will was not worth it. However, we still have one of those “alpha-channelled walk on flash movies,” but it’s on an internal section, not the home page.

The users said that they were afraid they’d get caught looking at websites during work, and get fired.

So, after delivering this information to our sales department, and to the TV stations, one of the first things both did is deploy even more autostarting video - both ads and those useless alpha-channelled walk on flash movies.

I’ve said it before - they don’t care about the users. Heck, they still call them “viewers”.

Advertisers: stop coming up with ways to annoy your potential customer.

It’s a good idea, but be smart about it. Don’t put up loud annoying clips. Make it interesting and don’t just slap up any old commercial. Best case is to promote a section with an advertiser kicker marry the content and the sponser for things like weather, sports, entertainment, home improvement, money, etc… A fine line maybe, but when done right benifits all parties.