Five years ago: AOL to put ads online

First published 5 March, 1997

AOL is shortly to follow its US parent America Online by rolling out advertising banners on its service. However, the UK service will only carry ads on its most popular areas and says it has no immediate intention to duplicate US plans for including them in chat rooms.

"We've just sent out rate cards for UK advertising but at this point it's very much at the top lines of the service such as the UK Live celebrity events and maybe the computing and entertainment channels," said Judith Coley, AOL corporate communications director. "We can't rule it out for the future but compared to America Online in the US we're just starting."

Coley declined to give a definite day for first advertisements but said they would appear "very shortly".