YouTube first spoke about pause ads last year when it started trialing them in select regions. At the time, the company said that when you pause a video, it will shrink, and an ad will appear next to it.
“In Q1, we saw strong traction from the introduction of a pause ads pilot on connected TVs, a new non-interruptive ad format that appears when users pause their organic content,” Schindler noted. He went on to share that YouTube’s pause ads are “driving strong brand lift results” and “are commanding premium pricing from advertisers.”
Schindler didn’t share any timelines for when pause ads will start appearing on YouTube, but we know they’ll first roll out on smart TVs. The nature of these ads, including their duration, skippability, and more is still unclear. We also don’t know if Google plans to introduce these ads on YouTube’s mobile apps.
It’s impressive how still companies can do eatever they want with the content made by users. I mean YT is a massive human archive and it made billions not doing a single content and shitting on it as they please
They're solving a couple of problems.
Content creators don't want to pay to host video, but want to be able to reach many people. Video hosting is bandwidth- and storage-heavy in comparison to most forms of content. Someone's gotta pay for it.
Some content creators want to be paid.
Many content viewers aren't willing to pay directly for video, but are willing to watch ads. That one's been around for a long time, with ad-supported TV and radio.
If you make a competitor that can solve those problems, it can compete with YouTube.
I'm not sure how this would work long term or if it would be any less annoying, but right now some content creators have ads within their content, like not YouTube ads but them just verbally promoting it. This could occur on peertube and is an option to still have a funding steam. It also allows creators to only have ads for things they are willing to support on their content. But it's also harder to skip and a bit annoying as a viewer so not sure if this has long term potential