Unskippable Thirty-Second Ads Coming to YouTube on TVs ⇥ variety.com

Todd Spangler, Variety:

At the YouTube Brandcast upfront event Wednesday in New York, execs announced the introduction of 30-second unskippable ads in top-performing YouTube content on TVs — you know, just like the commercials that have run on broadcast and cable networks for decades. YouTube also will start testing new “Pause Experiences” for YouTube on TV screens, showing an ad when viewers pause a video akin to the pause ads Hulu first bowed four years ago.

A couple years ago, after YouTube began testing a set of three pre-roll ads, I had to wonder what its upper limit could be before people begin tuning out. So far, it looks like it can just keep piling on the ads. And, each time, YouTube Premium gets a little more valuable.