If you think about it and abstract a bit, this is sort of the point of ads. Seeing an ad or two on display is like a micropayment of X cents to the content owner.
Except that advertising itself sets up perverse incentives and numerous negative externalities. It's also not free -- the world collectively pays over $600 billion for it, much of that from the advanced industrial nations, numbering roughly 1 billion people, so about $600 per person.
Contrast that with direct media expenditures of about $125 to $150 or so per person.
