Instead, an easy-to-use and affordable micropayment system, something like flattr (but with an option for paid-only content), that can be used by Internet users to pay for content, maybe as a part of the ISP subscription.
The cynic in myself outlines a world full of pay-to-win online games, but I suppose people will learn about them and they will vanish sooner or later anyway.
I actually don't mind ads anymore - more specifically, targeted ads - as long as they don't auto-play sound or get in the way. I'd rather see a few non-intrusive ads relevant to my interests, instead of paying for content myself.
I used to find ads annoying and intrusive. Maybe I'm becoming subliminally subservient to my advertising overlords, but I like to think it's the targeting that makes a difference. Also, the fact that they've become less intrusive, and I have the option to skip ads not relevant to my interests.
For a lot of people in my field (comics in particular, visual arts in general), Patreon is filling that need quite well. I'm now getting about $400/mo for drawing my comic, mostly from people paying a few pennies a page. People who have larger fan bases are making several thousand a month.
It is stupidly easy to use. Make a video pitch and a text pitch, then put a link to it on every page of your content (whether by tweaking your cms templates or pasting the same text into every post on a site you don't control), and forget about it beyond posting a copy of payable works you make to it.
Instead, an easy-to-use and affordable micropayment system, something like flattr (but with an option for paid-only content), that can be used by Internet users to pay for content, maybe as a part of the ISP subscription.
The cynic in myself outlines a world full of pay-to-win online games, but I suppose people will learn about them and they will vanish sooner or later anyway.