YouTube has been testing pause ads on TV devices and has seen "strong traction", indicating that a wider roll-out may be imminent.
Max and Hulu have already introduced pause ads that appear when you pause the video for whatever reason.
Google's YouTube has also been testing pause ads on TV platforms in select regions this year, and has provided the first update on the experiment:
- "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," Google's Philipp Schindler said during Alphabet's latest earnings call.
A pause ad on YouTube. Photo: Antique_hardDrive, Reddit
What's next?
The comments certainly seem to suggest that YouTube is strongly considering a wider roll-out as part of its mission to monetize users not signed up to YouTube Premium, which however does not remove sponsored content in videos.
Last year, YouTube launched a campaign to block ad-blockers worldwide, and the next step is to try and block third-party apps with ad-blockers built-in such as SmartTube and NewPipe.
- Source: Android Authority, Reddit
