AdAge: PAY TO TURN OFF ADS WITH WEATHERBUG.COM

If the consumers elect to view ads, they get free access to the daily weather news; if they prefer an ad-free version of the service, they pay a $19.95 annual fee ($1.66 a month) instead.

And those who go for ads and free service can also choose which sponsor's ads they want to see each time they return.

While free readers have no control over the content of the local weather reports that WeatherBug provides, they can change the advertising that appears around it. The company calls it an "on-demand" ad model. Consumers who visit the site can opt to download WeatherBug 5.0, which then appears as an icon on their desktop. This allows consumers to then change the ads they are shown during their visit.

Gary Stein, marketing and advertising analyst at Jupiter Research, said: "WeatherBug is outside-of-the-browser Internet advertising and it's really exciting. As far as I know they're the only ones doing it."