Will Richmond has a strong round up piece on the emerging concensous around pre-roll advertising in todays VideoNuze report.   He says, in part:

"Pre-roll video ads' effectiveness and user acceptability is getting a boost from 3 different research studies this week. Results were released by Break/Panache and Tremor Media and by Jupiter Research, which focused on the European market. Taken together, they are an encouraging sign for the many broadband video providers who have chosen ad-supported over paid as their business model of choice."  And he goes on: "But as broadband video usage has grown, pre-roll ads that actually did interrupt the content experience felt jarring for many users. Naturally, when asked, users said, "ugh, we hate them." Fair enough. But consumers are smart, and have quickly recognized that, just like TV, to get high-quality video programming, someone has to pay, and since most users would rather that not be them, they've become more accepting of all ads, pre-rolls included. With premium sites employing some targeting now and becoming more judicious in their insertion practices (ABC.com and Hulu are great examples), users have become more accepting. Hence these positive research results."

The importan point being, that while the may be disruptive,  and not popular,  they are being adopted and consumers have an understanding that they're going to be part of the ecosystem,  at least for some content.  Stay tuned!

http://www.videonuze.com/blogs/?2008-08-20/Pre-Roll-Video-Advertising-Gets-a-Boost-from-3-Research-Studies/&id=1938