By Ivan Mehta
Do you absolutely hate YouTube’s pre-roll ads? Well, YouTube’s thinking about introducing two back-to-back skippable ads, called “Ad-pods.” In return, it’ll let you watch a longer video without interruptions.
Currently, YouTube shows an ad while you’re in the middle of watching a video. So, instead of that, YouTube will show two back-to-back ads before the video starts, to provide a distraction-free video watching experience.
The company noted on the blog, that many users consider the frequency of ads breaks as an important video watching factor:
Our recent user experience research suggests that in addition to factors such as the length of ads, viewers are quite sensitive to the frequency of ad breaks, especially during longer viewing sessions.
Through this research, we also learned that fewer interruptions is correlated with better user metrics, including less abandonment of content and higher rates of ad viewing. To respond to this, we will begin testing ad pods–two ads stacked back to back, where viewers have the option to skip directly to the content if it’s not the right ad for them.
Notably, YouTube’s paid ad-free service, YouTube Premium, is only available in select countries. So, unless you’re using a special YouTube ad blocker app or extension, there’s no escape from this.
Do you prefer two ads upfront, or an ad interruption while playing a video? Let us know down in the comments.
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