Microsoft says Skype ‘will have more adverts

Microsoft is planning on ramping up the amount of advertising free users of Skype see while they are making video calls and using the rest of the service.

Talking ysterday at the announcement of Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype for $8.5bn, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive said that he could see huge revenue potential in the online video chat service, especially in the video advertising area.

Tony Bates, Skype’s chief executive, who will now become the president of the Microsoft Skype division, said: “We think advertising is a powerful monetising stream for us.”

Ballmer than revealed that the acquisition had come about after both companies had been discussing Skype using Microsoft’s sales team to ramp up advertising on the internet telephone service.

Neil Stevens, Skype’s vice president and general manager of its Global Consumer team, would not reveal exactly how the increased level of advertising would affect those making video calls but did say: “The key thing will be not to get in the way of the calls…We need to find a clever way of doing it [inserting adverts].”

Currently Skype users see limited advertising messages on the top of the video screen when using the service on a Microsoft powered laptop. However, it has yet to take advantage of more lucrative video advertising.