YouTube is testing fewer, longer ads on TV – YouTube

Based on early information, users should expect to see fewer but longer ads. The company said that it is experimenting with this type of advertising for a better viewing experience when watching long-form content, which is almost similar to a traditional commercial break during traditional television programs.

Along with this change, YouTube is also trying to update the ad timer on TV to better display the remaining time in the ad break. YouTube currently displays a given ad length with a placeholder that says “Ad 1 of 2,” which doesn’t make it clear how long the break will last. The company said it will soon begin testing the new timer that focuses on total ad break time.

Earlier this year, YouTube began offering 30-second non-skippable ads on TVs. The company said the test was conducted with 150 million US users in April. With the latest announcement, the company said that people are watching more than 700 million hours of YouTube content on their TVs every day. In other words, it is a very important advertising medium for the company.

And last March, the company announced the multi-sports feature to watch multiple matches simultaneously in any number of countries depending on the availability of related content. In June, YouTube expanded its multiview feature to include non-sports content.

Google isn’t just experimenting with how to display ads on its smart TV app. The company announced Thursday that starting in November it will remove some ad controls for content creators to specify pre-roll, post-roll, and skippable and non-skippable ads. Content creators will only be able to enable or disable ads, but the format will be determined by the YouTube system itself. They will also get controls to manually insert ads into the live stream.