This seems to follow a progression
- No ads
- Non-intrusive ads
- Intrusive ads, but you can pay to make them go away
- Intrusive ads, but you can pay to make them less intrusive
- Intrusive ads and you have to pay just to see the content
- Content becomes ads
- Ads pretend to be content (see Dr. Pepper's "Fansville")
- Award categories for ads are featured in major award ceremonies
- Award ceremonies just for ads go mainstream
Actually not sure what's real vs hypothetical at this point.