YouTube Confirms It’ll Show Ads When You Pause Videos

For almost two years, the concept of YouTube ‘rolling ads’ when you pause a video has been batted around the creator space. It was a few months ago that such a practice started cropping up, but now, YouTube has confirmed that on a global scale, paused videos are fair territory for ads to appear.

In a recent report, YouTube’s commercial team confirmed that ‘all advertisers‘ can now insert their promos into paused videos worldwide.

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Money Talks

Earlier this year, it was confirmed by Google that inserting ads into paused videos was ‘lucrative’. It comes as no surprise that months later, the firm has opted to roll out this mechanic to advertisers everywhere.

Per a report published by The Verge:

As we’ve seen both strong advertiser and strong viewer response, we’ve since widely rolled out Pause ads to all advertisers.

In theory, it shouldn’t bother viewers one bit, as these ads will only appear when they’re not actively watching something. In The Verge’s article, it was rightfully pointed out that this should offer a ‘less interruptive’ experience, but it was also noted that standard ads might not necessarily appear less just because you’ve got a chance of seeing them while your video is paused.

It’s an unsurprising move – ad revenue is big bucks for streaming and content platforms. It’s what pays the bills, in most cases. In truth, platforms like Twitch and YouTube are desperate to make back the money they spend on infrastructure, so every ad impression counts massively.

Of course they’re going to shoehorn them in whoever possible.

Do you think this’ll impact your viewing experience on YouTube? Let us know on the Insider Gaming forum.

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