It's becoming increasingly difficult to avoid advertising on YouTube and now it's getting even worse. Google has announced that it's rolling out a brand new ad format: 30-second clips that cannot be skipped and they will primarily target those who watch via smart TVs or any similar solutions.
The format is part of YouTube's new "Video Reach Campaign," which uses AI to select the length of the ads shown to the viewer. The idea behind this is that viewers are simply less inclined to reach for the remote and start clicking around when they are sitting comfortably on the sofa. This makes TV perfectly suited to the longer format.
Unskippable ads already exist in shorter formats of six and fifteen seconds, but the new thirty-second clips are a clear step up the annoyance scale. In practice, this is now starting to resemble regular old TV, with the only difference being that you have chosen the video you want to watch, but you are still served ads.
The decision is driven by money. Advertisers pay significantly more for ads that actually have to be watched in full, and in recent years YouTube has also tightened the screws on software that blocks ads. So either you watch, or you open your wallet and pay for Premium, at least that's YouTube's logic.