Customer complaints have prompted Microsoft to halt a new WebTV practice of inserting banner ads into the email messages of subscribers of the TV-based Web service.

In a twist on direct-mail marketing, Microsoft began including banner ads in incoming emails as a way to increase advertising revenue on the network. Banner ads started to appear on general Web pages relating to email service on WebTV, but also on top of opened email messages, so that subscribers received ads with their correspondence. WebTV was able to do this because messages are delivered through the WebTV network. The program began and ended last Friday, according to WebTV representatives. Although many free email services attach ads to mesages, WebTV users objected to the new practice because of the relatively high monthly subscription fees--$25 per month--the service charges users. In addition, the ads increased the download time of each page over typical dial-up connections, and users feared that they were also hogging space in email mailboxes.