YouTube first spoke about pause ads last year when it started trialing them in select regions. At the time, the company said that when you pause a video, it will shrink, and an ad will appear next to it.
Example:
“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 noted. He went on to share that YouTube’s pause ads are “driving strong brand lift results” and “are commanding premium pricing from advertisers.”
Schindler didn’t share any timelines for when pause ads will start appearing on YouTube, but we know they’ll first roll out on smart TVs. The nature of these ads, including their duration, skippability, and more is still unclear. We also don’t know if Google plans to introduce these ads on YouTube’s mobile apps.
YouTube is unwatchable for me with all these ads. Even without ads, content creators mostly all follow the same generic bullshit format.
It used to be a great resource for visual aids and explanations, now it's filled with money making schemes and scams and every video has 14 minutes of bullshit and 1 minute of content.
I watch a lot of YouTube, but not without udblock and Sponsorblock. It's just not enjoyable otherwise. Whenever they do something that makes my stuff not work for like 2 days I just watch something on my home server.