YouTube is introducing non-skippable 30-second commercials for TV

Watching YouTube on your TV is about to get more frustrating if you’re not paying to avoid commercials. as announced in youtube brandcast Following Wednesday’s event, YouTube will soon add 30-second non-skippable ads to top-performing content viewed on connected TVs.

YouTube says viewers will see one 30-second ad instead of two consecutive 15-second ads, though that doesn’t mean those shorter ads will disappear entirely. 30-second commercials will be available through advertisers youtube selection, a curated advertising platform that targets the top five percent of YouTube content. YouTube claims that 70 percent of YouTube impressions come from TV, making it the ideal platform for longer ads.

“More and more viewers are watching YouTube on the biggest screen in their home,” said Neil Mohan, CEO of YouTube, during the broadcast event. Diversity, “Viewers – especially younger viewers – no longer differentiate between the types of content they are watching.”

YouTube also announced that it will begin testing ads that appear when a viewer pauses a video on a connected TV. It’s similar to the pause add feature rolled out by Hulu a few years ago, and dubbed the “Pause Experience” by YouTube. Looking at the example image published by advertising weekYouTube’s paused ads will appear as a banner around the video and can be removed by selecting the “Dismiss” button.

YouTube hasn’t mentioned when either of these changes — 30-second non-skippable commercials and pause commercials — will roll out, but we’ve reached out for detail and will update if we hear back.

Yesterday’s announcements follow the video hosting platform’s recent crackdown on ad blockers. Last week, YouTube revealed that it is playing with pop-up messages He states “Ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube”, encouraging viewers to subscribe to YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience.