YouTube has become a pretty solid staple of a lot of people's daily lives. Whether you're eating, wanting to look up a tutorial on some niche topic, or just plain bored, it's a really good platform. And it got even better when it was ported onto smart TVs as an app. But, a recent controversial change to YouTube TV has caused an uproar from users who have branded the change "ridiculous.
As reported by Dexerto, Youtube has recently started handing out a 90-second unskippable torrent of ads, one after another after another. It looks like the ads started being rolled out to US users around April 7.
How can you tell? Well, the r/Youtube subreddit absolutely blew up. One Redditor said they were "speechless" the moment they saw a 90-second tirade of unskippable ads on a "40-minute video." They also branded it as "blasphemy."
Another commenter said that "you may as well watch regular TV at that point", branding YouTube as "ridiculous" with the sheer volume of adverts. It's even caused people to stop watching at all - one commentor said they switched straight to HBO Max the moment he got his "first 70+".
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YouTube Previously Said Longer Unskippable Ads Were Arriving in March
But, it looks like this is something YouTube have been planning - but not at this scale. Dexerto reported back in March that they were planning on making 30-second unskippable ads the norm on YouTube TV. But it looks like this change got bumped up to 90 seconds with little warning to users.
Google said that they would use AI to target the ads to the TV app. They specifically said the longer ads were tailored toward audiences using YouTube in a "more relaxed, living-room setting."
"Google AI dynamically optimizes between 6-second Bumpers, 15-second standard, and 30-second CTV-Only non-skippable ad formats, ensuring your campaign reaches the right audience at the right time," they explained to advertisers.
People have speculated that this increase in unskippable ads is a covert push for their premium subscription model. YouTube Premium removes all adverts from the watching experience. This is otherwise difficult to do on TVs as things like ad-blockers do not exist.
