People why don't you complain to sports stadiums, public transportation operators, taxis, TV operators etc...
An ad never prevented from playing a game or affected my XBL experience. Really can't fathom this.

Content promotion highlights a feature/offering of the service. An advertisement is an third-party promotion for a product you may or may not be interested in and has no bearing on the online service or your use of the console.

Content promotion or feature advertising is a means to letting the masses know about new content or features of a system. Not everyone is out in the forums or keeping up with the latest news and trends. If those ads are targeted, it may even be more helpful. For instance if I just bought a game and Microsoft has a sale on the DLC for the game. A targeted ad to let me know the DLC is on sale would be a bonus. Likewise, if Xbox Music knows I have a particular artist in my collection, but I don't have a particular album or a new album was released, an ad for that album might not be so unwelcomed.

I personally don't mind content promotion, and on Xbox LIVE don't generally mind third-party promotions. They're not, in my opinion obtrusive. That said, it's nice that the landing page is devoid of third-party commercial ads.

As I seem to recall, Sony has a patent for standing up, waving your hands or shouting to acknowledge an ad before you can play your game.  That'll be fun.

doesn't mean that they will use it, many companies patent ideas that they will never use.

so that proves nothing.

but M$ has confirmed that content promotion (aka ads) will be on the X1, I just hope the PS4 won't have ads too..

it'll also never happen.

@OP
in Other words, nobody is buying adspace on the xb1!
See what I ded thar?

Because content promotion isn't the same as adverts.

Microsoft clearly have no idea what is "important" to me.

I've never understood why people hated the ads on the 360.

80% is related to gaming. 15% is to remind you that you should get gold. Then there's a random 5%, sometimes it show games, others, movies or songs.

Can't wait till we see actual footage of the PS4 dashboard and see content promotion. Of course if that happens then it is a good thing.

I seem to recall people arguing that Sony would never charge for online multi-player either, yet where are we now?

To be honest, and fair, I doubt they would ever do that.  To force a third-party commercial advertisement to be viewed before playing a game would be a huge turn-off for 99.9999999999999999999% of gamers.  And that smaller percentage of those who wouldn't mind it probably like torturing kittens.

People who complain about content/feature promotion are completely unrealistic.  An online service is a business, the way for that business to generate revenue and provide more content and features is to get people to buy or use the content and features it already provides and the new ones its rolling out.  Otherwise it becomes stagnant and usage and memebership drop off.

Reddit as an example, is never stagnant.  Content aside, the subreddits are added and removed based on usage and interest.  This site too relies upon new content to draw in readers and clicks.  Not only user created content, but site generated content written by staff.    It's "advertised" by showing it on the main page and not making you search for it. 

So, yeah.  I thought the way Microsoft did advertisements on Xbox LIVE was the least obtrusive way you could do ads and likewise I thought it was one of the smartest ways as well.  Highlight a static tile and it becomes live with video.  To me, that was cool.  In some cases it might have gotten me to click on it, in others, not so much.