YouTube ad breaks during long-form content on TVs are becoming longer. The upside, however, is that there will be fewer ad breaks in general. YouTube had previously tested fewer, longer ad breaks, and seemingly found success with them, leading to this wider change.
Based on a survey conducted by YouTube in 2022, the company stated that “79% of viewers would prefer video ads that are grouped together instead of distributed throughout a video.” This is specifically in relation to watching long-form content on a TV.
After testing the use of longer, fewer ads, Google explained that all users will now begin to encounter “a more seamless viewing experience” when watching certain long-form content on connected TVs.
Google has also taken the opportunity to make a change to the information presented during ad breaks. Specifically, Google says users prefer to see the total time remaining for an ad break over how many ads are left, or how long each individual ad lasts. As a result, users will soon begin to see an indicator of how long the ad break is, or how long they have until they can skip to the content.
As these changes seem to specifically apply to long-form content, and content watched on a TV, it seems likely that they will be welcomed changes. While the ad breaks themselves will be longer, viewers will see less of them when sitting down to watch a longer video.
Interestingly, YouTube Shorts on TVs will also now come with ads. According to Google, views of YouTube Shorts on connected TVs grew by more than 100% from January to September 2023. This has now led to Google adding ads between Shorts viewed on TVs, along with the option for viewers to click through them with their remote just like would with Shorts in general.
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