Pocket Casts is Showing Ads To People Who Paid For an Ad-free App (theverge.com)
(Wednesday September 24, 2025 @05:30PM (msmash)
from the oops dept.)
- Reference: 0179520670
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/25/09/24/1930219/pocket-casts-is-showing-ads-to-people-who-paid-for-an-ad-free-app
- Source link: https://www.theverge.com/news/784429/pocket-casts-ads-lifetime-memberships-complaints
Pocket Casts is being flogged for [1]showing advertisements to legacy users who were promised an ad-free experience. From a report:
> The first reports started to appear in early September in the Pocket Casts support forum and subreddit. The issue is a bug, according to Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Pocket Casts' parent company Automattic, and will be corrected. Pocket Casts launched as a purchase-only app in 2010, charging users a one-time download fee of up to $10, depending on the OS and platform. The service later switched to a subscription-based model and made the app available for free in 2019. After backlash from users, the company gave anyone who paid for the web or desktop apps before the pricing changes free lifetime access to Pocket Casts Plus, its ad-free premium subscription service.
>
> The app was acquired by Automattic in 2021, and the Pocket Casts Lifetime memberships were rebranded to "Pocket Casts Champion" in August 2024.
[1] https://www.theverge.com/news/784429/pocket-casts-ads-lifetime-memberships-complaints
> The first reports started to appear in early September in the Pocket Casts support forum and subreddit. The issue is a bug, according to Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Pocket Casts' parent company Automattic, and will be corrected. Pocket Casts launched as a purchase-only app in 2010, charging users a one-time download fee of up to $10, depending on the OS and platform. The service later switched to a subscription-based model and made the app available for free in 2019. After backlash from users, the company gave anyone who paid for the web or desktop apps before the pricing changes free lifetime access to Pocket Casts Plus, its ad-free premium subscription service.
>
> The app was acquired by Automattic in 2021, and the Pocket Casts Lifetime memberships were rebranded to "Pocket Casts Champion" in August 2024.
[1] https://www.theverge.com/news/784429/pocket-casts-ads-lifetime-memberships-complaints
All Bug Reports To Slashdot (Score:1)
by WankerWeasel ( 875277 )
Are we going to post about every software bug here on Slashdot now? CEO says it's a bug and will be corrected. Where's the story? Bug causes unexpected behavior and will be corrected promptly. Slow news day?
Matt Mullenweg being shitty? (Score:3)
by OverlordQ ( 264228 )
Whodathunkit
AntennaPod (Score:1)
by Anonymous Coward
Ditch this and use [1]AntennaPod [antennapod.org].
[1] https://antennapod.org/
Straight out of Black Mirror (Score:2)
by Roger W Moore ( 538166 )
Although it was about a brain implant spewing ads the [1]Common People [wikipedia.org] episode initially required a 'plus' upgrade (so even the name was the same) to avoid ads until it too was not enough and you had to afford the 'lux' level. I'm beginning to wonder whether it is predicting the future or inspiring it by giving bad people bad ideas.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_People_(Black_Mirror)
I bought the app in 2018 (Score:4)
Since I didn't buy the web player, I'm not grandfathered into anything and had ads in an app that I paid for. I deleted it and moved to AntennaPod.