[ub99]

Oh I see. My ad blocker seems to block all those video ads pretty effectively!

Even then, why would they not just run video ads in that spot? What is the point of trying to distract the user from the content of the article? Just feels weird to me.

[rchaud]

I've mostly seen autoplaying ads on "blog" sites like Forbes and Huffington Post or news websites. These are known as 'content mills' because they either reprint Associated Press/Reuters coverage, or they publish articles from freelance contributors. It's a bottomless pit of generic content.

Front-load every article with an autoplaying video w/ ads, and that can make some decent revenue if your site has a lot of traffic.

[exciteabletom]

> What is the point of trying to distract the user from the content of the article?

The article is merely bait to get you to look at the ads. Once you are on the page, they don't care whether or not you read the article.