YouTube has confirmed that it will be rolling out pause ads on the platform, meaning users will have to sit through even more ads than before.
In a recent article by The Verge, Oluwa Falodun, YouTube's communication manager, stated that the company has "seen both strong advertiser and strong viewer response, we’ve since widely rolled out Pause ads to all advertisers." Apparently, the idea is that these ads will be less intrusive to the viewer. Sadly, there was no mention of if this would mean fewer other ads on the site.
YouTube and Google have been working to improve how they show ads to consumers over the years. These include showing longer ads less frequently, adding several ads to the video and unskippable ads. This is all combined with the company's constant battle against ad blockers, including skipping video sections for any user with such a feature installed. However, YouTube has made it clear that this was not intended to target users of some of the best adblockers.
While more adverts are tedious, the obvious answer is to sign up for YouTube Premium. While $13.99 / £12 / AU$32.99 is not cheap, there are some pretty good perks. These advantages include ad-free viewing, offline viewing and background play. YouTube Premium also offers access to YouTube Music, which recently announced two new AI features.
YouTube is following services like Hulu and AT&T TV making use of pause ads, making it seem like there is no escape.
More from Tom's Guide
