It looks like Google TV’s free streaming channels will have unskippable ads in the future
Great news for anyone who watched the unskippable ads on YouTube and thought, “Man, I really wish I could have this unpleasant experience on my TV”: Google is going to answer your prayers by offering mandatory ads to free content on Google Accessories for TVs and Smart TVs.
The ads come as part of a brand new ad network called the Google TV Network, and it’s coming to a wide range of brands using Google’s TV platform, including many household names like Sony, Hisense and TCL. The platform currently reaches more than 20 million monthly active users, not only on Google TV devices, but also on Android hardware and Chromecast.
The Google TV network brings its ads to the built-in streaming channels that Google TV offers.
What do Google’s advertising plans mean for your Google TV experience?
The new ad formats include non-skippable in-video ads that every YouTube viewer loves, as well as mandatory “bumpers” that play before or after a video and can last up to six seconds. Google promises that more ad formats will be coming in the not-too-distant future.
The ads come to free channels, known as FAST (Free Ad-Supported Television), which means we can’t really complain: the ads are listed there in the category, and it’s what pays for the content delivered free of charge. to you.
The FAST sector is growing very quickly, especially in the US: according to Google, US users of its free Google TV channels watch an average of 75 minutes of programs per day. That’s about two Columbos or She wrote murderS. By the end of 2023, one in three U.S. viewers subscribed to some FAST services; Amazon’s Freevee was the fastest growing, but FAST offerings from Pluto, Tubi, Roku and others also grew quickly. That acceptance has undoubtedly been helped by the price increases of streaming services: with the cost of streaming soaring, ad-funded free channels are looking much more tempting.
And the nature of FAST means the new advertising platform may not be too intrusive. FAST channels generally offer fairly low-quality content that is heavily repeated, programming usually structured for networks that already place ad breaks in every show. And it’s usually the kind of TV you have on in the background while you do something else, so the ads probably won’t be as annoying as they are with premium products *cough* Prime Video *cough*.