Would you pay £140 a year for an ad-free web?

An ad-free internet would cost each user at least £140 a year – a sum that the vast majority of UK web users say they would never pay, according to new research.

Video ad platform Ebuzzing calculated the average ‘value’ of each web user by dividing the amount of money spent on digital advertising in the UK in 2013 (£6.4 billion) by the number of UK web users (45 million). In a survey of more than 1,400 UK consumers conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Ebuzzing, 98 percent said they would not be willing to pay this amount to browse the internet without advertisements. However, while most consumers regard ads as a necessary trade-off to keep the internet free, they will go to great lengths to avoid advertising they do not wish to see. Of those surveyed, 63 percent said they skip online video ads 'as quickly as possible' -- a figure that rises to 75 percent for 16-24 year olds.