ads on Premium during Podcasts

I understand that the podcast maker enters their own adds, but I'm getting regular adds in the beginning of the podcast. I'm listening to a podcast in English and the add is in Portuguese, so obviously it's not the responsibility of the podcaster.

Hi there @Débora Piragine 

It could be there's a problem with your app. Can you check for the Deezer app version in settings? Have you tried reinstalling it to see if it stops?

And, is it happening to only one Podcast?

Hey, I only listen to this particular podcast, so I can't say if it's only happening on this one, but I'll try to reinstall the app. 

Please post the link for the podcast here and let us know once you've reinstalled the app @Débora Piragine, have a nice weekend!

I am experiencing the same issue: Premium Deezer account, English podcast, German (extremely stupid) advertisement. I am using the web app (uninstalled, reinstalled, same results). I am logged in into the desktop app.

Also, I am getting advertisements on CLASSIC episodes from a year ago that have CURRENT (today) content.

I would say, that MUST be Deezer adding advertisements, otherwise it sounds strange to hear current ads on old episodes :-)

Example podcast: https://deezer.page.link/tdx1hYRUUoYQSoBB6

Hello @m.a. 

Thank you for your feedback,

Ads are authorised on some podcasts, depending on the podcast and podcasters. As you are based in Germany, the ads are targeted as a German user with present-day ads, even if the episode(s) it’s and old one.

Thanks :)

You see me puzzled. I thought, paying Premium would not be targeted with ads. Now  … if paying for premium still gives me nonsensical ads, I somehow don’t see the point of paying for premium in the first place?

Hi @m.a. 

Thank you for your comments, we do appreciate your opinion,

As it has been mentioned at the beginning of this thread by one of our superusers, the podcasts are coming from the users (podcast makers), not from Deezer, and Premium is ad free only for music content, that’s why you could get some ads while you are listening to the podcasts,

Sorry for the inconvenience caused :)

Thank you, @Alfredo. 

Actually, the comment at the beginning of the thread does not seem to make this point very clear. It mentions “ads can be heard on all podcast services” (something I can not verify, since I don’t have access to ALL podcast services in the world, yet, my favorite podcast service does NOT add advertisements to podcasts I listen to, so there you go) and “ads are NOT coming from Deezer”, yet your comment seems to indicate that the latter is exactly the case here (ads coming from Deezer).

Your comment, to me (me being a very old, very dumb, very German stupid white sack), seems to be 180° contradictory to the comment at the beginning of the thread.

I am fine with the bottom line result: I won’t use Deezer for podcasts and will reconsider paying for premium. That is not to say I won’t pay for premium, I am simply reconsidering. So far I am happy with my Deezer experience (better so than with Amazon), yet, I switched from Spotify to Not-Spotify for their unearthly bad support. Feeling “puzzled” is what drives me, personally, away from paying for a service. Did I mention that I am very old and very stupid?

Hi @m.a. 

Thanks! We are glad to know that you are enjoying your Deezer experience   

That’s a lie.

I open Deezer.  I play a podcast.  And advert is heard.  Ergo, the advert came from Deezer.

Reopening this again to state the obvious. Ads are coming from deezer, no reason why an American podcast from years ago would start injecting Dutch ads in the podcast. I've listened to the podcast completely before and I'm in the process of doing a 2nd run through it and now it has ads. the podcast is over 10 years old.

Hi ​@pcmoreno it is unlikely, but if you send me the name and URL on Deezer for the podcast that you mentioned I can ask to the corresponding team. Also if you could tell what’s the ad about, or product/brand would be helpful too.
Thanks

Reopening this again too, hoping more unsatisfied feedback from the mass will eventually make things move.

Just like the others I encounter ads too (in my language, seemingly targeted to my age and sex (oh to be a woman and therefore targeted by debilitating baby-related ads as soon as you turn 25- but I digress), on an old english podcast) despite paying for premium. 

Having contradictory comments from the team about the origin of the ads, while it being obvious they come from Deezer (as they target the clients' location), is a problem. We pay for an ad-free service, the least you could do is give us respect and clear answers. And a service adequate to what we pay for.

Just wanted that to be clear and heard.

Could you please provide the URL of that old english podcast in order to check on our side?
Thanks 

Hi there,

Just chiming in to add my own confusion to the thread.

I am a recent Premium subscriber, and after several weeks without this issue, I am now getting regular, disruptive ads targeted to my region (Australia) while listening to a US produced podcast that is several years old. These insertions are definitely not part of the original uploaded podcast.

The responses by Community Managers in this thread have also been a little confusing:

​@Alfredo.Deezer first stated 3 years ago that “Ads are authorised on some podcasts, depending on the podcast and podcasters.” and separately “Premium is ad free only for music content”. They also agreed with the premise that ads are placed by whoever the podcasts are actually “coming from”. If this isn’t just referring to ads baked in by the original creators, does that mean that Deezer lets third party podcast hosting services play targeted ads to Deezer Premium subscribers?

I imagine a lot has changed since Alfreddo's responses, but I didn’t remember reading a "music only” disclaimer when I signed up earlier this month, so I went back to the current terms and conditions for Deezer Premium: 

“The Deezer Premium Service is a service offered and operated by DEEZER that makes it possible, subject to consent to these Terms, to:

– Listen to sound recordings and other musical and cultural content (such as podcasts, radio stations, videos and in certain territories, audiobooks) (hereinafter the “Content”) without any advertisement interruption, on multiple devices...” (https://www.deezer.com/legal/premium-service-terms )

Podcasts are most definitely included in the promised ad-free content as of 2025.

However the terms do go on to disclaim: 

“DEEZER informs the Deezer User that it declines all liability with regard to advertisements displayed within content provided and hosted by third parties and which may be integrated into and/or referred to on the Site or the Application.”

I would understand this disclaimer as covering cases where content accessible on Deezer has ads baked in… which is fair enough. But the ads I'm getting are current and clearly being dynamically tailored to me based on my region; if the above disclaimer is also referring to this type of advertising, that seems directly at odds with the first clause I quoted and with what is being promised by the service. 

In their responses to more recent comments, ​@Jaime.Deezer seems to be treating it as a potentially podcast specific issue that can be addressed, so I'm hopeful that it's just a glitch they're still trying to iron out.

In my case, this is one episode where I am hearing these ads: https://link.deezer.com/s/314Y90AIEknnuBcCe3kh6  

I have listened to dozens of episodes of other shows by the same creators and so far this is the only show that I am experiencing this issue with.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can provide some clarity.

​@Jaime.Deezer 

Here is the podcast.

https://link.deezer.com/s/318VkOIC76lG56lgwW6Yf

It's from 2016 and I just got an ad for Ed Sheeran's newest album released in 2025 so the ads are definetely not embedded in the og file (if the ads targetting the audience were not proof enough)

​@Marique 

After posting my comment, I found other threads where the clarified story seems to be that Deezer does not have control over these ad slots as they do not host the podcast themselves, but rather "forward” the streams from third party platforms. It is apparently these platforms and their ad partners that manage the ads, and since all Deezer does is pass the stream along wholesale, they have no control over that.

It explains why the ads are clearly new and targeted, but I don't understand how Deezer justifies advertising ad-free podcast listening with Premium while acknowledging that that isn’t something their streaming model can reliably provide.

P.S.

I had included a screenshot of the Premium promo page in my original comment with direct statements to that effect but it looks like that didn’t make it past the filters so I'll quote it below instead:)

Ad-free experience

Stream all your favourite audio content without a single ad interruption.

...

Choose what you listen to. Ad-free.

With millions of tracks, podcasts, radio and more, there's something for everyone.

Listen ad-free, skip as much as you want, and craft your own collection.

…

FAQ

• What are the advantages of a Deezer Premium subscription?

  You can choose what you want to listen to at anytime, without ad interruptions, and skip as much as you want. You can also enjoy offline listening on the Deezer app.

These are from the …/en/offers/premium page on their website. Not only is there no disclaimer on the page to exclude podcasts from the content we can listen to ad-free, it is actually heavily suggested that they are included in the “ad-free experience”. If ads from third party platforms can regularly make it through to us, the experience isn’t ad-free. It doesn't really matter where the ads are coming from. 😅

Thanks for the links ​@Marique ​@NikosTea.
Could you please confirm if the ads are random and if the are inserted in an specific part of the podcast (i.e: at the beginning when you press play?

​@Jaime.Deezer 

Hi, Jaime 

For me, it consistently plays one at the beginning of the podcast, and then also at certain points through the run time, but I’’m not sure how consistent or fixed the placement is. I can scrub back and forth or 30sec-hop through the ads though, so I think they have fixed slots. But the ad content is different each time I reload the episode.

Thanks

​@Jaime.Deezer It depends on the episode. It could be at the beginning, or somewhere in the middle, or at the end (and in that latter case the ad doesn't seem to be part of the episode duration, like the timecode stays frozen as if the ad played after the episode)