Update #3: Today Viacom and AT&T reached back out to Cord Cutters News to say the ad run was run by Viacom. The ad has since been paused. The ad was a digital inserted ad not part of the typical live TV ad block and explains why some may have seen it and others did not. AT&T did confirm to Cord Cutters News that the ad did run but they didn’t sell the ad.
Recently Cord Cutters News has started to hear reports that DIRECTV NOW was promoting an adult cam website called Sbabes.com. Now Cord Cutters News has received the following image showing the ads on DIRECTV NOW:
Hey @directvnow @DIRECTVNowHelp so you’re advertising porn now in the commercials you substitute for broadcast commercials? Wanna help me explain what https://t.co/K74LNjT0wu is to my 8 year old daughter? Despicable. @TheVerge @Gizmodo @CordCuttersNews @engadget pic.twitter.com/hsVUxgxgYO
— WDW Bus Driver ???? (@wdwbusdriver) June 17, 2019
Update: Viacom has confirmed to Cord Cutters News that they did not run the ad shown in in the tweet above.
According to our reader at 7:30 PM Eastern today, the ad you see above was shown during an episode of The Office on Comedy Central. From the ad counter in the bottom left it looks like this was an ad sold by AT&T. (We are reaching out to AT&T and Viacom for comment on this.)
Recently AT&T has started to expand selling their own ads. All live TV services get to sell a set number of ads every hour. Services like DIRECTV NOW also sell ads during and from the looks of it one of these ads showed the adult website. With AT&T selling targeted ads it is possible that you will see an ad but your family member upstairs streaming the same show would see a different ad.
It is very possible that AT&T did not know they ran an adult ad. There has been a history of ads being sold reportedly to push a product only to have the ad swapped out with a more risky add after it was approved. Many websites and ad networks are cracking down on adult ads but still have it slip through. It is very possible that this was just one more example of an ad slipping through when it shouldn’t have. For now, we will have to wait for Viacom and AT&T to get back to Cord Cutters News to learn more.
Have you seen ads like this on DIRECTV NOW? Please leave us a comment and let us know.
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