You may think pausing a show you’re streaming is an opportunity to make a coffee, grab a snack or let the dog out. For those in the advertising industry, however, it’s an untapped new frontier.

So-called “pause ads” are those overlay ads that pop up on the screen when you hit the pause button. They may still be relatively new in Australia, but given what’s happening in the United States, we can expect to start seeing a whole lot more.

Variety this month described them as one of the media industry’s hottest areas of focus. It reported that big streamers such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max and Disney are betting on “increasingly aggressive” pause ads to capture viewers’ attention and increase revenue.

Disney’s Hulu was one of the first streamers to experiment with pause ads. Disney’s advertising website spruiks them as “a unique opportunity” for marketers to “deliver relevant messaging to consumers at the right time and place – during a natural, user-determined break in the storytelling”.

Its examples include an ad for Champion clothing using the tagline “Binge watch in comfort”, and a commercial for trainers urging “Don’t run off… without a pair of shoes”. Another, for a Volvo electric car, states: “Take a pause to recharge”.

Disney was one of the first streamers to experiment with pause ads.

The first pause ads were fairly unobtrusive – overlays taking up only around a quarter of the screen. But streamers are becoming bolder, with some now showing full-screen pause ads with interactive elements such as QR codes that enable the viewer to buy an item or learn more about whatever is being promoted.

Netflix perhaps best highlighted the potential of the format when it partnered with Google last year on a series of interactive “shoppable” pause ads that enabled US viewers watching the latest season of romantic comedy drama Emily in Paris to use Google Lens to visit a shopping page featuring the clothes Emily was wearing.

For viewers, the pause ads are the latest commercial encroachment on a medium that was originally promoted as an ad-free alternative to traditional television.

Most major streamers have now introduced advertising – with the ad-free option offered only at a significantly higher subscription cost – and the ad breaks seem to be getting longer. The reasons, we’re told, include rising production costs and the fact that the streaming market has become more crowded and therefore more competitive.

One popular TikTok content creator bemoaning the pause ads described them as “very, very frustrating”: “Every time, every day, it’s always more and more and more ads on streaming services, which I moved to begin with to not have to deal with ads… but every company wants more ads, they want to double dip in revenue.”

However, given the findings of a US study titled “The Pause”, released in July by Magna Media Trials and DIRECTV Advertising, it’s not surprising that streamers and the advertising industry are embracing the format.

The researchers found that 91 per cent of respondents paused “all the time” or “sometimes” while watching streaming TV, and that around 70 to 75 per cent (excluding members of the boomer generation) were open to seeing ads when paused.

A third of the more than 2400 adults surveyed also said they stayed in front of the TV when they paused a show.

“Eighty-one percent of viewers said they pause to either avoid missing an important scene, to rewind and rewatch something important, or to wait for someone else to join them to watch together,” said Drew Groner of DIRECTTV.

“That’s the exact opposite of disengagement – making pause ads a highly effective way to reach viewers during TV’s can’t-miss moments.”

Interactive pause ads were among the “advertising innovations” highlighted when senior executives from Amazon Ads and Prime Video Australia delivered a presentation in Australia in September. With these kind of ads, viewers can use the interactive feature to add a product to their Amazon cart or to “learn more”.

Prime Video has run ads in the US that encourage viewers to use their remote to visit Amazon and buy things such as sweets or batteries.

Australian publication AdNews noted that the interactive overlays remain available as long as content is paused, “extending engagement opportunities beyond traditional ad breaks”.

Netflix, for example, has found that 77 per cent of viewers with a subscription that includes ads keep a pause ad on screen for 15 seconds or more.

Disney, meanwhile, has been giving viewers the choice of whether to see a pause ad full-screen by clicking their remote. It is said to also be exploring offering other experiences such as trivia games that would be accessed via pause ads.

Variety reports that more streamers are also looking to use AI to run pause ads that play off whatever viewers are watching – for example, an ad for a mobile company might pop up while two characters in the show are having a phone conversation.

Viewers can, of course, choose not to engage – perhaps by taking an actual break from their screen when they pause the action. But as long as the ads make money, we’ll probably be stuck with them.

In the words of Groner: “The pause ad revolution isn’t coming — it’s here.”