Susan!
If you’re smart, you run an adblocker on YouTube, and I don’t feel the least bit bad about saying it, Linus. But I also use YouTube on things like a Roku, where that is significantly less possible. So even I was aware when YouTube decided to start running anywhere from 5-10 unskippable 10-15 second ads all over the place. As a matter of fact, it’s really annoying when you’re trying to lull yourself to sleep watching a 2+ hour video of someone talking about the least enjoyable Shin Megam Tensei games ever made and all of a sudden, you’re getting bombarded by unskippable upbeat ads for shit you’re never going to buy.
And, wouldn’t you know it? I wasn’t the only one to notice this annoying shit.
The good news is, YouTube has told PC Magazine that it was just a test and they won’t be doing it anymore going forward.
“At YouTube, we’re focused on helping brands connect with audiences around the world, and we’re always testing new ways to surface ads that enhance the viewer experience,” a YouTube spokesperson says in a statement. “We ran a small experiment globally that served multiple ads in an ad pod when viewers watched longer videos on connected TVs. The goal is to build a better experience for viewers by reducing ad breaks.”
“We have concluded this small experiment.”
That said, they’re probably going to take another run at this in the future. The intention was to run more ads at the beginning of a video so as to avoid as many breaks over the full runtime of the video. Apparently this increases the likelihood that viewers will not only watch the entire video, but also all of the ads. Which, of course, they’re forced to when the ads are fucking unskippable.
This has, however, reignited the fears that internet services like YouTube are going the way of cable. So nice job fixing it, guys.
Thankfully (if that’s even possible), it’s not as bad as it once was. I remember a time back in the 00’s where I got an unskippable 1 hour and 30 minute ad for some beardy guy’s airsoft channel/store/whatever in the middle of my ~9 minute video. Refreshing the page fixed it, but I wasn’t happy.
Damnit, I just gave them an idea, didn’t I?
Source: PC Mag
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