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Over the past couple of years, between price hikes and shifting priorities, even the best streaming services have become more akin to cable TV with prices to match, especially at the higher "ad-free" tiers.Almost every streaming service, save Apple TV, has multiple subscription tiers, including one with advertisements. These ad-supported memberships tend to be less expensive than the higher tiers and in some cases offer fewer features, like a lack of live sports or no downloads.With that in mind, how often are advertisements interrupting your movies or TV shows? We tested seven of the major platforms to find out.Tom's Guide testing process
(Image credit: Getty Images)We tested seven streaming platforms with the same process for both movies and TV shows.These are the streamers I looked at:Disney+HBO MaxHuluNetflixParamount+PeacockPrime VideoWe tried to test out shows and movies of similar lengths within five minutes on either side. For movies, we watched films that were 2 hours long. For shows, we tried to find two episodes of about 60 minutes each, within five minutes.We charted how many advertising breaks were inserted into the media, including starting ads. We also tracked how much added time the advertisements added to the overall runtime of the shows and movies.Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.Movie advertising
