Many people will do anything to avoid ads – but Tesco Mobile believes its more thrifty customers won’t mind seeing more of them to get money off their bill.

The mobile operator is offering its customers £3 off their monthly bill if they download an Android app that will deliver extra ads.

Customers who sign up to the Tesco Mobile Xtras programme will see an extra full-screen ad roughly every third time they unlock their phone.

The company is also giving customers who sign up to the deal an extra 200MB of data to cover any data used in by the ads, which may feature animations but not videos.

To qualify for the discount they must view ads or other marketing content on at least 21 days out of every month.

The launch of the app follows a deal with Australian mobile advertising platform Unlockd.

Tesco Mobile’s approach is in stark contrast to plans by rival Three to trial ad blocking for its users. The company is asking customers to sign up to a 24-hour test expected to run next Wednesday.

Three claims its plans to run what is known as network-level ad blocking, which uses technology from Israeli company Shine, is designed to improve the experience for consumers.

However, any attempt to block ads across its whole network is likely to prompt legal challenges from publishers and advertisers, potentially under European net neutrality rules.