YouTube doubles down on ads with unskippable 90-second clips

YouTube is once again pushing its users to the brink with a move that makes the experience feel less like modern streaming and more like old-school TV.
Text: Marcus Persson
Published 2026-04-08

Ads continue to flood YouTube, and according to reports from various sources, the company has now started rolling out 90-second ad clips to free viewers. What's even worse, these clips cannot be skipped. Yes, you read that right: ninety seconds of forced ads.

As you know, it used to be possible to at least click away the ad after a short while, but that's no longer the case. Instead, you're forced to sit there and stare as if it were old-school linear TV.

This isn't the first time YouTube has tested the limits of what users are willing to put up with, and as ad blockers become more common, Google is turning up the heat. They're simply making the free version so annoying and unusable that the Premium version starts to feel like a lifesaver.

Have you noticed these 90-second ad clips?

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