Oh I see. My ad blocker seems to block all those video ads pretty effectively!
Even then, why would they not just run video ads in that spot? What is the point of trying to distract the user from the content of the article? Just feels weird to me.
I've mostly seen autoplaying ads on "blog" sites like Forbes and Huffington Post or news websites. These are known as 'content mills' because they either reprint Associated Press/Reuters coverage, or they publish articles from freelance contributors. It's a bottomless pit of generic content.
Front-load every article with an autoplaying video w/ ads, and that can make some decent revenue if your site has a lot of traffic.
And video ads carry much higher per-user prices then display ads. Especially if the whole ad finishes playing or you accidentally click on the ad when trying to close it.
Even then, why would they not just run video ads in that spot? What is the point of trying to distract the user from the content of the article? Just feels weird to me.