What’s the ad experience like while watching Plex?
What’s the ad experience like while watching Plex?
Plex is one of the more unique free streamers available, but how does it handle ads?
Plex is one of the most unique offerings in all of streaming. Yes, you can watch free on-demand shows and movies as well as live streaming channels, but you can also upload your own media to Plex servers, share titles with your friends, and even watch live TV through a connected antenna.
If you decide to take a spin through Plex’s on-demand library for yourself, you will definitely see ads during playback. But how many commercials will Plex make you put up with while you watch? I took a look, and you can see the results I came up with below!
Everything you need to know about the ad experience on Plex
How many ads do you see while watching TV shows on Plex?
If you’re an avid reader of this article series, you know I like to test ad experiences on original shows and licensed series to see if a streamer puts more commercials on titles it didn’t create. Plex doesn’t offer that option, since it does not have any original series or movies.
I still tested a 30-minute show on Plex, and an hour-long series as well. I picked “Weeds” as my 30-minute test subject, and “Mad Men” for my hourlong show. In both cases, I saw that Plex follows a bit of a different philosophy than other streamers; namely, it uses longer ad breaks, but puts fewer per episode.
During “Weeds,” I saw two breaks per episode, but ad breaks were three minutes each, for six minutes of commercials total. The breaks were the same length on “Mad Men,” but there were more of them, and I saw 10-12 minutes of commercials per episode of that show.
How many ads do you see while watching movies on Plex?
I had a similar ad experience when watching movies on Plex as compared to TV. The ad breaks were the same length, but naturally, there were more of them. I saw five breaks each while watching “Kick Ass” and “Point Break,” adding up to around 15 minutes of ads per movie. Each film also had pre-roll ad breaks at the beginning, 30 seconds in duration. It’s more or less the same amount of ads I’ve come to expect while watching other free streaming services, though once again, the presentation was a bit different.
Does Plex have pause ads?
I tested Plex on my phone, on a Roku streaming device, and on my laptop. None of these platforms showed me a pause ad when I used the streamer, so I’m going to tentatively say the service does not come with ads you can interact with while your content is paused.
Does Plex have ads during kids’ content?
Yes, when I tested the kids movie “FernGully” I saw ads during playback. All the commercials I saw were for kids-related content, but your ad experience while streaming kids shows and movies on Plex may differ slightly.
Does Plex put ads on your personal content?
If you decide to upload your shows and movies to a personal media server on Plex, you will not have to worry about the streamer inserting ads into that content. Plex does not play commercials during playback of private media content.
Final thoughts
I didn’t mind the ad experience on Plex, though I can see how it wouldn’t be for everyone. Fewer ad breaks meant not only longer breaks, but also the risk of seeing the same ad multiple times in one break — if I never see a commercial for Liberty Mutual again, it’ll be too soon.
You’ll see around the same number of commercials on Plex that you do on other free streamers; they’re just presented in a different way. For some viewers, it would be preferable to have more breaks that are shorter in length, but it’s something to keep in mind as you browse free streaming services to find on-demand entertainment that won’t affect your budget.
Plex
Plex is a free streaming service that includes on-demand access to 50,000+ movies and TV shows. The service also offers 1,100+ free-to-stream live TV channels in 193 countries. Users can also connect Plex to their computers to stream and share any media they have on their hard drives.