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YouTube Will Kill Unskippable 30-Second Ads Next Year (theverge.com) 168

Posted by msmash from the doing-away-with-things dept.
YouTube is planning to do away with the non-skippable 30-second ads that appear before a YouTube video. From a report: In a statement first given to Campaign then confirmed by The Verge, a Google spokesperson said the company will focus on commercial formats that are more engaging for both advertisers and viewers. "We're committed to providing a better ads experience for users online. As part of that, we've decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers," Google said.
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YouTube Will Kill Unskippable 30-Second Ads Next Year More

YouTube Will Kill Unskippable 30-Second Ads Next Year

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  • ads on youtube (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17, 2017 @04:04PM (#53888267)

    Wait, there are adverts on youtube?

    • I know you're kidding but adblock doesn't always work on embedded videos. Facebook videos still show, and some (all?) embedded ads on other websites.

      But man, trying to use YouTube on my phone for music when I'm driving? GOOD LORD there's a ton of ads. They're so annoying (1 minute ad after a 45 second YouTube video? Suck my balls.) that I go out of my way to mentally make a note to think less of whatever company is advertised. Like that stupid mobile game that looks like a cartoon age of mythology. I'll nev

      • Wait until android ads come to YouTube. You know the ones that pretend they are a game for you to play and want you to play but are just an ad to download the game? The ones where they put the close button on a 15-40 second delay and can appear in any corner at random?

        Those ads are almost enough to get me to buy an iPad mini to replace my google nexus 7. The other factor is a lack of good 7-8" android tablets that are not a kindle.

        • iOS apps are full of those dumb fake game ads too. Ads suck in general, and are pretty much unavoidable wherever you go. But they will never go away as long as people in general are not willing to pay for content. A couple of bucks for a game is really not unreasonable at all in the grand scheme of things, but people are conditioned to think that everything should be free so charging $5 for an app is considered an extreme expense by most consumers.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by lgw ( 121541 )

        I mostly get videos (on YouTube directly) that refuse to play if any adblocker is enabled. Just the "static" screen. What do you use that works?

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward

          I started using ublock origin when reports came out that AdBlock was sucking up to certain advertisers. I never see ads on Youtube or get videos that refuse to play with an ad-blocker enabled.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by sudon't ( 580652 )

            I never see ads on Youtube or get videos that refuse to play with an ad-blocker enabled.

            Haven't seen that problem either, (I'm using Ad Block for YouTube, amongst other plug-ins), but I often come across sites that beg me to disable my ad blocking software. Sometimes I do, but more often that not, the site then doesn't seem to recognize that I've disabled ad blocking. That's ok, though. I can live without most of these commercial web sites.
            I realize we'll never have the internet of 1998 again, but perhaps if everybody used ad blockers, we'd see some improvement? Of course, it's always amazed m

        • I mostly get videos (on YouTube directly) that refuse to play if any adblocker is enabled. Just the "static" screen. What do you use that works?

          Their competitors videos.

          Do you want fries with that?

        • A combo of uBlock Origin and uMatrix works phenomenally for me...NEVER see a YouTube add (on desktop/laptop).

        • uBlock Origin on Firefox and Chromium works for me.

        • A plugin called "Adblock for YouTube". I use it on Chrome; unsure if available for FF etc

        • I have no issue with Adblock +, but some have issues with their acceptable ad program.

      • 1: Never, ever, allow or in any way provide for "autoplay" on any individual youtube video, embedded or on-site. It's 100% user-hostile. No youtube video should ever, ever play in any wise unless the user actively clicks that triangle icon. No autostart, no hover-start, no timing start. Only if the user specifically says start, or, in the case of a playlist, if the user clearly and unequivocally and in a fully informed manner says to play the playlist.

        2: If the user hits that "play" icon, put up a yes / no

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by sudon't ( 580652 )

          Yeah, it's really annoying to always have to remember to turn off Autoplay and Annotations for every video you watch. But, as far as I can tell, it seems most web sites enjoy annoying the shit out of their users. Most web sites are unusable on my phone, with all this crap popping out of top and bottom, leaving you a tiny window to read through. And in my browser, I fucking hate all the shit popping out from all sides, the overlays begging for my email address, as if I need more junk in my inbox, and all the

      • Who the fuck uses YouTube on their phone for music while driving?
        • I do. I don't use it enough to get anywhere near my data cap and I'm not going to pay for Spotify, Apple Music etc.. Plus, I can listen to things besides music.

      • The ones that really get me are the Tyler Oakley ones with that irritating chirpy voice and oh-so-punchable face. I only seem to get them when I'm using 3G/4G but happily enough when I use the skip button on my car's steering wheel I can skip them entirely.

        If that guy is the face of new media I want no part of it. He has the bearing of a children's TV presenter, which must explain why Disney are so keen.

      • Yeah, but for some reason ads never come up when I'm using a chromecast on my TV. Is that a bug or a feature?
      • Why the fuck are you dicking around on Youtube when you're "allegedly controlling" a tonne and a half of metal with 50 odd liters of volatile liquid in it?

        Ever heard of Spotify, Panrora, or ya know, good old MP3s, you dangerous fuck?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sudon't ( 580652 )

        I know you're kidding but adblock doesn't always work on embedded videos.

        That's why there's Ad Block for YouTube. I think the buried lede of this story is: There Are Still Some People Who Don't Use Ad Blockers

    • ... to make watching Free videos so unbearable that you'd subscribe to Redtube...I mean You Tube Red.

      I think we know what You Tube Marketing people watch.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Indeed. I just recently found out as well. Now I am disabling the ad-blocker for YouTubers I want to support, but only if they chose to go with low-annoyance ads.

    • Wait, there are adverts on youtube?

      Bingo. Since installing Adblock I haven't seen a single one. Particularly nice on those 20- or 30-minute videos where they cram an ad in every 2 or 3 minutes. I used to HATE that, now I just laugh as the progress button just moves right past the little yellow "here's an ad" line without a hiccup.

    • Wait, there are adverts on youtube?

      Yeah. I watch TV on YouTube live on the laptop, and while I'm watching a show, an ad interrupts in b/w, and 5 seconds pass before I have the option to skip it. I then have to move the slider back, setting myself back. I try to satisfy the ad deities by refreshing the page when regular ads on the TV channel start, so that the ads are overlaid and that I do not have to watch them during the show. But 5 minutes into the main show, and they're back, much to my chagrin.

      I welcome the end of unskippable ads

  • Sorry, I don't watch Youtube for advertisements. The only way an advertisement will engage me is if it's off to the side, not flashing, loud or even video at all, and lets me watch the video I'm there to watch in peace.

    • I'm actually kind of curious about this. I've never once clicked a sidebar ad or an ad before a youtube video (at least not on purpose). Are there people who really do that consistently enough to justify the cost? Or is the goal more of a brand or product recognition/refreshment from people even glancing at the advertisement? Or something else I'm just not thinking of?

      Anyone have experience in creating/publishing online advertising who can comment on this?

  • >> YouTube is planning to do away with the non-skippable 30-second ads

    And, in the next room: "Today, we are introducing 25 and 45-second unskippable ads!"

    If anything, this is the continuing use case for multiple browser tabs, each with their own volume/mute button.

  • May be good or bad news... (Score:3)

    by ctilsie242 ( 4841247 ) on Friday February 17, 2017 @04:12PM (#53888329)

    I always get a bit nervous when ad formats change. Things like ads which have to be interacted with, every 5-10 minutes (thankfully uBlock Origin + Tampermonkey take care of those.) I'm just waiting for ads which require software to download and run with root/admin rights in order to be able to view a website, similar to the "pr0n viewer codecs" of yesteryear.

    As for YouTube, between the Red subscription (which is nice for saving lots of stuff offline), and ad blockers, it hasn't been a problem, but I wonder what the 30 second ads will be replaced by.

    • I originally thought the red account was supposed to be add free...but it's not. It's not too bad, but if you supplement youtube for tv like I do, it can get a little annoying....it's like hulu making you pay an extra 4 bucks on top of the 8 for ad free viewing.

      I get it and understand everyone wants their due, and I personally would rather just cough up a few extra coin than watching any ads period. That said....it still irks me that they are now starting tiered pricing rather than just free and paid. Like

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I wonder what the 30 second ads will be replaced by.

      29 second ads.

    • YouTube will start splicing ads right into the video and not allow fast forwarding at those points.

  • TANSTAAFL (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Friday February 17, 2017 @04:16PM (#53888361)

    Video hosting costs money. Micropayments don't work. Nobody's signing up with a million different video hosts.

    The solution was, is, and always will be for the foreseeable future... advertising.

    All it'll take to make it work is to find a way to extract the evil from advertising people so they stop continually escalating from 'find where potential customers are and put information in front of them for our clients' to 'skull fuck the entire public to get an extra purchase, regardless of how much trouble it causes'.

    • Re:TANSTAAFL (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Friday February 17, 2017 @04:46PM (#53888583)

      Advertising outlived its welcome, though.

      First and foremost, people have been treated like cattle by the ad industry for way too long. Knowing that people can't do anything but grin and bear it, they became more and more obnoxious, and now that people can actually go and give them the finger, they come whining. Sorry, but fuck you. Even IF you treat me with respect now, it's too late to apologize. Dear advertising industry, please go and die. I'd love if you did it slowly and in agony, but for practicality reasons, just make it quick.

      Aside of this, they're doing it wrong. This could be the most topical ad in the world they're showing, the ad that could change my life to the better, provide me with more money than I could want, make me rich and famous, unite me with the perfect partner that I will love for all eternity, and still I would not want anything but to get rid of that ad. Why? Because it gets into the way of what I wanted to do.

      How does the average YouTube experience look like? At least to me, this looks like this: I think "hey, that's a song I want to hear" or "hey, that's a documentary I'd like to see", I go on YouTube, I find it, I click start and ... an ad. That is not what I want. That is by no means what I want. I'm neither interested in this ad nor am I actually even noticing what it is for, all I do is search the "skip it" button, or if there isn't one, reload the page until you finally get an ad that is either 5 seconds long or does have a "skip it" button.

      This is why the whole thing doesn't work.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by galabar ( 518411 )
        Start your own video service without ads?

        • Why would I try something I know I cannot do?

          Unfortunately I do not have the ties necessary to sell user profiles and profiling data.

      • I completely agree, the whole industry is horrible and has in many ways (whether intentionally or not) altered even society standards and customs to the detriment of everyone.

        I would go so far to say that state surveillance/black ops stuff and the advertising industry share more or less the same code, methods, apps, tools and ethos...so what does that tell you?

    • Except for some clothing suddenly falling to the ground on an empty pair of shoes with socks in them.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      I disagree. Micropayments work well if done right and greed is kept in check. Just look at Patreon, for example.

    • To be honest I personally don't see a problem with the long ads in front of what I watch. I prefer them instead of the video being chopped up by a bunch of pop up ads that drive me crazy. They block out images that I'm trying to see. It's like a movie theatre equivalent of someone in the row in front of you getting up every 6 minutes to block your view. For example, some of the new video game commercial previews are pretty good,

    • Video hosting costs money. Micropayments don't work. Nobody's signing up with a million different video hosts.

      The solution was, is, and always will be for the foreseeable future... advertising.

      All it'll take to make it work is to find a way to extract the evil from advertising people so they stop continually escalating from 'find where potential customers are and put information in front of them for our clients' to 'skull fuck the entire public to get an extra purchase, regardless of how much trouble it causes'.

      I am fine w/ advertizing. Only issue here: I watch TV on youtube live, and every few minutes, an ad pops up, and 5 seconds pass before I can skip it. Now, the channel that I watch does have commercial breaks, so if the ad has to run, then run during those breaks. It's really annoying to have an ad interrupt me while I'm watching the show. Also, if an ad starts during a commercial break, I let it run. Problem is - I've seen ads as long as 4 minutes, and I try to let it run so that it's a while before th

  • "We're committed to providing a better ads experience for users online. As part of that, we've decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers,"

    I'd like to know why they do not implement this right away. It cannot be because they do not know what works well well for both users and advertisers now.

    • Re:Why not right away? (Score:4, Informative)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot.worf@net> on Friday February 17, 2017 @05:07PM (#53888747)

      "We're committed to providing a better ads experience for users online. As part of that, we've decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers,"

      I'd like to know why they do not implement this right away. It cannot be because they do not know what works well well for both users and advertisers now.

      Because of contractual obligations.

      People have already bought the ad time and if they haven't shown yet, may still be in production. Should YouTube feel like getting rid of the ad spots, the advertisers might pack up and leave especially if they cannot get compensation for the money spent producting the ad that would not show.

      So Google simply looked at the calendar and either no one's bought any ad space for 2018, or it's sufficiently far out that cancelling is not a big deal since the ads would likely only be in the concept stages and thus cheap to adapt to their new advertising format.

    • "We're committed to providing a better ads experience for users online. As part of that, we've decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers,"

      I'd like to know why they do not implement this right away. It cannot be because they do not know what works well well for both users and advertisers now.

      Likely contract reasons for this. If that is the case, then they have to wait until those contracts with the affected advertisers and advertising agents are up for renegotiation and renewal. That seems like the simplest explanation.

  • So why would I keep paying for Youtube Red? (Score:3)

    by elrous0 ( 869638 ) on Friday February 17, 2017 @04:19PM (#53888385)

    Getting rid of those annoying ads are the only reason I have it. Don't give a fuck about their original programming. HBO they're not.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Not sure about you, but I do the family plan Google Music which gets me Red on top of music for my family. I'm interested to see what the logged out experience is from a curiosity standpoint.I don't want to see ads. Ever. And I cope with skipping ahead when shows drop in those damned ads for Audible, Nature Box, Squarepace, etc. Yes. I know your product. No, I don't need that now. No, I don't need to hear about it again.

      I also agree with you on the original programming. I'm glad it's there for it's audience

    • Getting rid of those annoying ads are the only reason I have it.

      Maybe I'm not watching the right kind of videos, but if you use Firefox and uBlock... no ads. Ever.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by elrous0 ( 869638 )

        I watch most of my Youtube on a Roku, so Red is a must-have.

        • Love my Rokus. But Youtube ads pissed me off enough to spend $1000 and build 2 HTPC just to run an ad blocker. Also the ads on the Twitch app totally breaks the Roku OS. I need to unplug the Roku to reset it.

  • Since nobody else has discussed it yet... (Score:3)

    by Chris Katko ( 2923353 ) on Friday February 17, 2017 @04:19PM (#53888387)

    .. If I were to take a gander. I would say that 30 second unskippable ads and the like were HarassWare/AnnoyWare. Basically, they wanted non-YouTube Red to progressively become more and more intolerable thanks to the ads, so people would be encouraged just to get them away.

    The problem is, we've been using YouTube for YEARS with almost no ads, so we're not going to just magically take a "worse" version of a service and PAY to get it back to normal. And even then YouTube Red doesn't remove ALL ads.

    And that doesn't even begin to address the worst feature. YouTube Red costs a ridiculous price while having BARELY any content. Yes, yes, there's tons of content but it's not curated. You have to SEARCH for it and keep sifting through the crap. Netflix came to the game so much later and blew YouTube out of the water.

    Netflix's price feels like a steal. A no-brainer.

    YouTube Red's price feels like a rip-off.

    Supply and demand. "The consumer is never wrong." (If you want to make money, and you're not making money, it's YOUR fault as a business--not the consumers.)

    So back to the topic at hand. With these supremely annoying ads (which I would simply hit the mute button on my car and enjoy 30+ seconds of silence, because "screw you"), either accomplished their target to gain more Red exposure into the common place, or they completely failed.

    Maybe I'm far out in left field and missing another key aspect. It's possible. It's possible advertisers thought the option was good at first, but thanks to people like me (and everyone else!) hating them so much (causing NEGATIVE brand reception), they're removing them. That is, they're removing them simply because it doesn't help advertisers or YouTube, compared to the cost YouTube is charging to run those ads. Someone else will have to chime in on that aspect.

  • MY guess is the only reason for this is that almost no-one actually sits through them.
    Anymore than 5 seconds wait before they actually get what they clicked on, and most people have already closed the tab and moved onto something else.

  • They were not at all unskippable (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Friday February 17, 2017 @04:30PM (#53888463)

    The window close button worked just fine...

    Which is probably why they are going away.

  • It's the right choice (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    30 second ads are a holdover from the days of non-dvr TV. I honestly love the 5 second ads that they are using now. It's enough time to show your product and your brand.

    I have high hopes that the "irritate the viewer into submission" approach to advertising is slowly on the way out. Especially on a platform like YouTube, you aren't even competing for the user's attention. You don't need to grab attention, you already have it. If you irritate the viewer, you get :
    1) actual negative reactions to your brand i

    • Good god I hate the ads so much. Are they intentionally made with the goal of being as annoying and cringey as possible? I'm especially talking about that one with the mom that bribes her kid, through a lawyer, to do his chores with a granola bar. *shudder*

    • You got one thing terribly wrong in your argumentation. Ad blockers are NOT the fault of YouTube per se.

      I don't see ads on YouTube because of my ABP, but I didn't install it to block ads on YouTube, that was just a nice side effect or collateral damage or however you want to call it. I installed it to block ads on other sites that were irritating me, the risk of drive-by malware infections, and the general lack of interest in whatever they were trying to sell. It is the whole of the Internet that made me in

  • Let's just hope they don't replace it with something even more annoying.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Not a problem. Just put those YouTubers that think they can to it to you on a "Do now watch, ever" list.

  • It's all wasted time and money for almost everyone (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Friday February 17, 2017 @05:01PM (#53888707)

    They spy on our browsing habits. They spy on our communications. They're forcing us to watch things most of us don't care about and waste our time and bandwidth in the process.

    All of this, on platforms where we can communicate directly with them and give them feedback on what we actually want and like.

    First, give us the option to watch the ads if we want to. That's your first easy-to-get metric. Are people interesting in whatever you're advertising? Second, after the ad, give us options to give our opinion about the product. They have to be clear options that enable us to express our like or dislike about the product, not simple politically-correct bullshit replies.

    Trying to force-feed me a 30-seconds ad about a non-vegan meal is offensive to me. Showing me ads for quadcopters is pointless because I have zero interest in these things. Trying to sell me a Mazda CX-5 is useless because I don't have they money, the need or the desire to buy one. Hell I have zero interest in purchasing a SUV, ever. All those ads about commercial-grade networking hardware fall on deaf ears because I'm not in charge of anything even remotely close nor do I work with someone who is.

    Instead of letting us build a profile of our own, they try to guess what we want and then complain that "ads are not working".

    Idiots.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by zr ( 19885 )

      > Instead of letting us build a profile of our own

      unfortunately thats simply not possible. what we want vs what we think we want are very different things.

      on some level its always going to be about observation (well, spying).

      best we can (and should) expect is transparency and a degree of control of our own profile.

      its a brave new world folks.

    • You need to get out of mom's basement, your life sounds depressing.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      I have to disagree on "force us to watch". If they try to force me to watch 30 seconds of advertising, they lose me as a viewer at around 5 seconds, likely permanently. As I believe it is the YouTubers decision what ADs to allow, this is as it should work.

    • Instead of letting us build a profile of our own, they try to guess what we want and then complain that "ads are not working".

      Here you go: https://www.google.com/ads/pre... [google.com]

      • That link never worked for me, I get redirected a few times until I get a "failed to open page".

        Besides, when it was working, they kept adding shit automatically that I had to remove.

  • Better headline: All users are now installing youtube ad block

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Very likely this. Overdo it with advertising - lose it completely. Greed is not a good strategy when people do not need your product. (It is not a good one when they do either.)

  • In a dozen lifetimes I could hardly scratch all the great content on the internet that's available for free, or with barely any strings attached.

    The best defense against the dark arts of advertising is a curiosity streak that's a mile wide.

    Two words: substitute good [wikipedia.org].

    At the first sign of trouble, I open alternate tabs like a cowboy after a bar brawl.

  • I often watch YouTube through Chromecast on my TV. The ads are not skippable and cause all sorts of problems for the video that plays afterward (out-of-sync and stuttering). A few months ago, they put up a 30-MINUTE ad. If they think I am going to suffer through a 30-minute ad before watching a 7-minute video, well they would best think again. I wound up shutting the whole thing down and starting over and researching ways to block ads on Chromecast.
    • Weird. I see ads on my TV's native youtube player but have never seen a single one when using the youtube app on my phone with the chromecast on my TV.
  • Most users use adblockers in browsers or the iPhone....They now the current models does not work anymore, and have hinted for a while of putting the adverts in the same stream as the video, and not as a separate video...good luck with adblocking then.

  • Didn't figure it was worthwhile at first, but tried it on a 3-month free trial... and now I love it. Well worth the money, just like Netflix. No ads, some additional video content not otherwise available, and being able to play (audio only of course) in the background while using other apps on Android - or even with the screen off to save power!

  • Instead they'll just make it more annoying to skip ads by hiding the "Skip Ad" button behind a thumbnail of the video you are watching requiring two taps/clicks to skip it.

  • But I sure as shit hate when they play before (and even after) a video that's less than a minute long.

    If I'm about to watch Louis Rossmann repair a logic board or dish about business for half an hour, that's fine.
    If I'm about to watch Vanoss, Delirious, et al get up to their gaming shenanigans for half an hour, that's also fine.
    But if I'm watching a cat video a few seconds long or checking to see if the remix video I found is the one I'm after, my patience wears thin in short order.

    The number of ads that ar

  • These were pretty good to weed out part of the crappy content. Have one of these in front of your video? Do _not_ get my view let alone subscription, ever!

  • That I have with online video ads is that they widely miss the mark with me. Which is interesting because other sites like Facebook, Amazon etc. all pretty much know what I like. And you would think being it's owned Google this wouldn't be the case.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • I'm not sure one can even use the word "quality" with re to advertising. I guess what I'm trying to say is "the efficacy of advertising has deteriorated."

    My impression of what has happened in the advertising industry is that it's reminiscent of the early WWW days when the "blink" tag was still available. Can anyone recall opening a web page and seeing 20 or 30 words blinking on the page? This is what today's advertising has become.

    I think most ads today are very guilty of the "blink tag" mentality. I've bee

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