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YouTube confirms your pause screen is now fair game for ads
(www.theverge.com)
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Apparently a hot take, but I don't have an issue with this, as long as they're picture ads, not videos. An option to hide them temporarily would be good if you're trying to read something. Maybe you'd need to hold a key or something. To me this is much less intrusive than 3 videos ads at the beginning of a video.
All of that said, I pay for premium, as I watch enough YouTube for it to be very very justified. I've probably saved weeks of my time not watching ads, plus it supports creators more than the ads ever do.
You must be young (or without memory). YouTube ads started exactly with picture ads (horizontal banners), but that was not sufficient, and ~12 years later there already are 2 unskipable videos at start, middle and finish (and several at the middle if in a long video). Your ad at the pause may start with pictures even, but videos and later longer videos will follow.