We’ve been reporting on YouTube’s increasingly annoying ads for a while now: the plans for non-skipping TV ads early last year, followed by the arrival of longer ads on smart TVs last December, and so on. And now the streamer has found a new way to really push those YouTube Premium subscriptions – it’s going to make YouTube a little more annoying.
The changes were announced earlier this year, but they’re rolling out now. If you’re not a Premium subscriber, you’ll soon start seeing ads when you pause a YouTube video on your TV. 9to5Google According to reports, it appears to be a limited rollout for now, with the only advertiser appearing to be Dunkin Donuts.
Instead of making your video full screen when you pause, YouTube now makes your video smaller and places an ad next to it on the right side of the screen, with a “close” button below it.
There’s good news: These ads appear to be static, not video, so far. But when you talk about YouTube adding ad formats, there’s often an unspoken “yet”: They’re not video ads… yet; they’re not fullscreen… yet; YouTube isn’t sneaking into your apartment, kidnapping your pets, and demanding that you subscribe to YouTube Premium if you want them back… yet.
As one Reddit user said of Google’s screenshot: “Look at all that empty space on the screen where more ads could be placed.”
Time to skip YouTube?
These days, using smart TVs feels a bit like the myth of boiling a frog, with us as the frogs and ads as the water. My smart TV experience has gone from being largely ad-free to increasingly intrusive, even on services I pay for.
I currently don’t pay for YouTube on my TV, and the amount of ads is already so high that it has become almost unusable for me.
I started watching a live concert aimlessly the other night and it didn’t even get through a whole song before it got interrupted by ads. I’m sure more ads will actually push some people towards the Premium subscription (which is currently $13.99 / £12 / AU$16.99 a month).
But for me, it actually makes me less likely to watch something and move away from the built-in apps on my smart TV and into something more user-friendly, like the best streaming services or even some of the best free streaming services that don’t have too many ads popping up unpredictably.