There is no close button on the pop-up window! Tencent Video's "Sweeping Dark Storm" is accused of having to watch N ads even for VIPs

Recently, "Sweeping Dark Storm", starring Sun Honglei, was broadcasted exclusively on Tencent Video, and the show has received good reviews. However, a series of commercial practices such as VIPs having to watch ads, pop-ups that cannot be closed, and advanced on-demand videos that cannot skip episodes have sparked heated discussions.

According to China News Network, reporters found that on the evening of August 31, when the user was a VIP member and had not made any on-demand broadcast, "Sweeping Dark Storm" updated its 24th episode. After the opening credits, three advertisements were inserted, for Tongcheng Travel, Junlebao Milk Powder, and Dashixi Stomach Medicine.

In addition, during the viewing process, an ad for 999 Pi Yan Ping was inserted. It is worth noting that the pop-up window has no "close" button. Previously, "Sweeping Black Storm" also inserted a pop-up ad for Wulong nuts during the user's viewing process, and the ad had no "close" or "skip" buttons.

The Advertising Law clearly stipulates that advertisements published on Internet pages in pop-up or other forms should be prominently marked with a close sign to ensure that they can be closed with one click.

Regarding the situation where there is no "close" button on the pop-up ads in the drama, Tencent Video responded to China News Service: it will be iteratively optimized in future versions.

It is worth noting that the rules for advanced on-demand viewing of "Sweeping Dark Storm" have sparked controversy since its launch. The Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee believes that since Tencent Video's advanced on-demand viewing is charged by episode, consumers have the right to choose the episode they want to watch. The so-called "unlock and watch in sequence" is suspected of bundled sales and disregards consumers' right to choose.

In response to this, Tencent Video issued a statement on optimizing the advanced on-demand service, saying that in order to improve the user experience, Tencent Video will adjust the unlocking rules as soon as possible to support users to unlock selected episodes.

The Shanghai Consumer Council responded by expressing support for Tencent Video’s promised improvements, and hoped that other platforms with similar situations would also actively follow up, such as Youku, iQiyi, etc.