H.R. 10696: Ad-Free Means Ad-Free Act

This bill would direct the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to create rules against a practice used by video streaming services that advertise an “ad-free” subscription and then later add advertisements anyway.

What the bill would require

• The FTC would have to issue regulations within one year after the bill becomes law.
• Those rules would prohibit a video streaming service from:
  • offering or marketing a subscription as not containing ads, and then adding ads within one year of the customer’s start date, or before the end of the subscription contract if that contract lasts longer than one year; and
  • doing the same thing again if a customer cancels and later re-subscribes, within one year after the re-enrollment date, or before the end of the contract if longer.

Scope of the rule

The bill says this applies even if the streaming service is sold through a third party, so companies could not avoid the rule by using another business to handle the subscription.

Enforcement

A violation would be treated as an unfair or deceptive practice under the Federal Trade Commission Act. The FTC would enforce the rule using the same tools and penalties it already has for similar consumer protection violations.

What counts as a video streaming service

The bill defines a video streaming service as a paid subscription service delivered over the internet directly to users that provides:

• video programming, or
• other video content that users can watch.

Relevant Companies

• NFLX — Netflix offers subscription streaming plans, including plans marketed as ad-free; the bill could limit changes that add ads to those plans after purchase.
• DIS — Disney, through Disney+ and related streaming services, could be affected if it markets ad-free plans and later changes them to include ads.
• WBD — Warner Bros. Discovery, through Max, could be affected by restrictions on moving ad-free subscribers to ad-supported viewing.
• CMCSA — Comcast, through Peacock, could be affected if subscription tiers advertised as ad-free are later altered to include advertisements.
• AMZN — Amazon, through Prime Video subscriptions or add-on streaming offerings, could be affected if ad-free access is advertised and later modified to include ads.
• PARA — Paramount Global, through Paramount+, could be affected by limits on changing ad-free subscription terms after enrollment.
• ROKU — Roku operates streaming-related subscription products and channels that could be affected if ad-free subscription offers are later changed.