We don’t need to remind you just how appalling YouTube’s ad ideologies are. With the platform’s war on ad-blockers and third-party apps that circumvent those advertisements, YouTube is in its worst state possible. Well, not quite. Google recently began experimenting with a feature that plays ads on, get this, a paused screen. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out this is an instant money-spinner for the search giant.
There is no escape
In the latest earnings call from Alphabet, Philipp Schindler — Google’s senior VP and chief business officer — positively gushed about the experiment running on a limited number of YouTube TV devices.
“In Q1, we saw strong traction from the introduction of a pause ads pilot on connected TVs, a new non-interruptive ad format that appears when users pause their organic content,” Schindler said before adding that these pause-screen ads are “driving strong brand lift results” and “are commanding premium pricing from advertisers.”
We bet they are.
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It’s only a matter of time before the feature (known as “paused experiences”) is rolled out more widely. According to a report from 9to5Google, pausing a video on a YouTube-connected TV will minimise the video and play a small ad on the right side of your screen — very much like SuperSport’s ads during any match. Though YouTube doesn’t quite have the gall to play ads while your content is playing. Yet, anyway.
Of course, customers dig themselves out of this pile of ads through the simple expedient of paying the R70/m fee that grants access to YouTube Premium, which has been the company’s goal from the word go. That, and money — though the two are similarly linked here.