The Attention Toll Booth
awHECK@awheck
+2.7%
since Sep 30
The idea
I believe attention is turning into a real currency: most people will watch ads to get things free, while a growing share pays to make ads disappear, and the best businesses run both lanes at once. So this basket owns the two-sided operators, streaming giants, audio platforms, the biggest platform toll booths, apps that sell ad-free as a premium feature, and paywalled news, spread broadly rather than betting on one name. I keep a small cash reserve to add on dips and plan to hold for years, only rethinking it if a major player abandons the ad-supported tier or the escape fee stops rising.
What it owns
- Video services that charge advertisers for the cheap seats and charge viewers extra to skip them. · NetflixIt built the modern escape fee by offering cheaper viewing with ads and raising the ad-free price regularly, growing both lanes without cannibalizing either., The Walt Disney CompanyIt runs the two-lane model across Disney+ and Hulu by charging advertisers on the cheap tier and hiking the ad-free price, widening the gap between them., ComcastPeacock charges a small toll to watch with ads and a bigger one to escape them, alongside a huge advertising and distribution business moving toward profitability., SKYD27%
- In music and radio, free means ads and silence costs a monthly fee, on both sides of the till. · SpotifyFree listening pays with ads while monthly fees buy silence, and the service keeps converting the free tier into paid subscribers while raising premium prices., Warner Music GroupIt gets paid whichever lane a listener picks, ad-supported royalties on the free tier and higher per-stream payouts on premium, as long as total streaming revenue grows., SiriusXM HoldingsIt collects ad dollars from Pandora's free listeners and subscription fees from Sirius, holding up while subscriber counts stay stable and the ad business doesn't shrink., Tencent Music EntertainmentIt runs the same free-with-ads versus pay-for-clean split for hundreds of millions of Chinese listeners, staying in the take while paying subscribers rise and free tier monetizes.21%
- The giants running the biggest two-tier systems anywhere: YouTube with Premium, Prime Video with ads on by default. · AlphabetYouTube monetizes billions of free viewers through ads while a growing group pays Premium to escape them, reinforcing both lanes at the largest scale., AmazonPrime Video flipped to ads by default and now charges extra to turn them off, exactly the escape fee model, with pricing power proven by growing ad revenue.20%
- Everyday apps where removing ads is the hook that turns free users into paying subscribers. · DuolingoFree lessons come with ads, and Super removes them, the ad-removal upsell in its purest app form, holding up while paid subscriber growth stays strong., RedditIt sells attention to advertisers on the free side and sells Premium to people who want the ads gone, belonging while ad revenue grows fast and the paid escape lane expands., Match GroupIts apps let users swipe free with ads and interruptions or pay to clear the path, needing paying-user counts and revenue per payer to keep rising across its platforms.14%
- News that collects from readers who pay to get past the wall and from advertisers reaching those who don't. · The New York Times CompanyIt charges readers a subscription while charging advertisers for that same audience, a two-sided toll that works as long as subscriber counts and prices keep rising., News CorporationIt runs paywalls at the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones, collecting from readers who pay and advertisers who want those subscribers, holding while subscription revenue grows.9%
- Cash8%