I’m getting random ads since March, not from the podcast host.
These ads sometimes begin in the first 10 min of a 3+ hour podcast. If i quickly skip the ad, a new playing of the same ad will attempt to play again within a few min. This will continue, repeatedly, throughout the podcast.
I can find no explanation except that my “not for profit podcast player” has started inserting ads, separate from the host/distribution company.
I am only using this player to avoid ad placements by podcast players. So, wih that said…
From your description I guess you are streaming? I would suggest to download episodes so even if the provider put add in it you can skip it without him rescheduling ads !
Adding a few more sentences to explain where these ads might come from:
As Matth already wrote, AntennaPod does not insert ads. You can even verify this because AntennaPod’s source code is public. Apart from that, AntennaPod is developed by volunteers without commercial interest.
Now, you might ask something like “But then why is the podcast in English and the ad in German?” or “But why is the podcast episode from 2008 but still promotes a product released in 2023?”. The reason is a technique called dynamic ad insertion. Podcast publishers can instruct the hosting company to insert those ads. Then, while downloading/streaming the episode with AntennaPod, the media file delivered to AntennaPod gets cut on-the-fly to include the ads. Depending on how smart the hosting company does this, the ads might get inserted right in the middle of a sentence. Some of the hosting companies also mess up the chapter marks while inserting the ads (so the chapters are off by the duration of the ad).
AntennaPod plays podcasts just like they come from the podcast host’s servers. If they include ads, AntennaPod plays them. We have nothing to do with those ads, so the revenue fully goes to the publishers of your podcast (and probably the hosting company that the podcast publishers chose).
You can always use the skip buttons in AntennaPod to skip the ads. If you are streaming an episode instead of downloading, the hosting company has an idea of how far you are in the podcast. It might be possible that the company detects the fact that you skipped the ad and insert a new one. If you instead download the episode, they cannot do that and you can skip the ads more reliably. (Downloading is also better for your privacy because then the hosting company does not know when you listen to which section of the episode. AntennaPod can be configured to automatically download and later delete episodes, so you don’t have to do that manually)
Additionally, many podcast hosts provide an ad-free feed that you can buy. Usually, you then either get a secret podcast feed URL, or alternatively username and password that you can enter in AntennaPod.
Thanks for the info. I try to always download. Ill start tracking the occurrences and look for correlations. The random ads are for major advertisers and are placed mid-sentence.
This is a great app. I hope it stays great. Thanks, again.
I would put it under a separate heading, or maybe even a separate article, which can be linked from the main ads article. Just to avoid it getting too long.
Is it possible there is an app stealing focus to play ads? Have you installed any apps in march?
Do you use any other audio app and does it also happens?
Are you sure you are using the official AntennaPod version and not some clone by someone who stole AntennaPod’s source code (and left our contact details in)? The only official download links are given here: Download – AntennaPod
Ok, here is the answer - welcome to the future, folks…
This particular podcast (unnamed sports podcast) has recently got a new advertising deal. It is a popular podcast, with 100k+ downloads of each new episode (in some short amount of time after release). They have added 5-7 minutes of ads, per episode. However these corporate ads are placed (major advertisers - Fortune 500 companies), they are able to alter the playback features of podcast players - like Spotify and others. Buttons disappear, some players lose the ff ability throughout an entire 4 hour episode. People are really upset - none that i saw complaining mentioned AndennaPod.
I appologize for the confusion.
Other podcasts that have started “modding” my AntennaPod - NYT Daily and Post Reports.
So, I guess this is the future. Or, just the immediate future, until society rejects it and finds a way around it.
Thanks for making a product that tries to create a peaceful podcast environment.
Would you be OK with sharing the URL or one episode affected episode (share > media file) with us/me in a Direct Message? If they really manage to disable ff/de capabilities in Android it’s worth investigating how they manage.
In Spotify doesn’t surprise me. They are a major for-profit entity and building proprietary & closed systems. This means that they can easily disable ff/RW functionality if they so desire. Nothing special required from Android.
However, if there is a way these publishers/advertisers can impact AntennaPod’s functionality on the lockscreen, support for it must be baked into the Operating System or the default media player. In that context: who is your phone manufacturer? (Some are known to heavily alter Android and might be involved in it.)
