YouTube will start showing fewer but longer ad breaks on TVs
Technology
YouTube users will be served less frequent ad breaks
(Web Desk) - Watching a two-hour YouTube documentary on a TV is much easier than holding a smartphone for hours, and will soon be less annoying, too, as Google will be reducing the number of ad breaks viewers get while watching YouTube on a TV. But there is a catch.
According to an announcement from Google Ads today, surveys have shown that 79% of viewers watching long-form YouTube content on a TV "would prefer video ads that are grouped together instead of distributed throughout a video.
So instead of interrupting TV viewers every few minutes with a short ad, YouTube will soon start a global rollout of an experiment that started a few months ago.
On "certain long-form content" accessed through a smart TV, YouTube users will be served less frequent but longer ad breaks, with a new countdown timer showing the "total time remaining in the ad break," so they'll know exactly when the break will end, or when they can choose to skip it and return to their content.
The YouTube on a smart TV experience won't be improving for everyone, however.
Today Google also announced that ads would be coming to YouTube Shorts when watched on a TV, although as with the experience on a smartphone, they can be skipped using the TV's wireless remote.
This change to make ads less intrusive follows Youtube's recent crackdown on ad blockers.
