YouTube has said it will introduce “unskippable” 30-second ads during its top performing content viewed on traditional TV screens.
The format is effectively what commercial broadcasters have been running for years.
The Google-owned video sharing site will also begin testing “Pause Experiences” that display an ad when viewers pause their video.
In a presentation at its own Brandcast event in New York, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan paid attention to the increasing trend of viewers watching YouTube on their primary television, saying that it represented a seismic shift in video content consumption. Younger viewers no longer differentiate between the types of content that they watch, but they do expect it to be available in a single place.
According to Nielsen, more than 150 million unique viewers in the United States watched YouTube and YouTube TV via the TV in December 2022.
The new unskippable ads will initially be made available as part of YouTube Select, which comprises the 5% most-viewed content on the station.
They’ll supplement the existing 15 second back-to-back format.
Unskippable ads will debut in the United States before being rolled out internationally later this year.
