YouTube is Testing Having Two Skippable Ads Back-To-Back (cnet.com)

If you hate having your video binging session on YouTube interrupted by multiple ad breaks, the good news is that things are about to change. CNET: The streaming platform is rolling out a new tweak to its video watching experience, by placing two skippable ads back-to-back, which it says will reduce the number of ad interruptions later in the video -- up to 40 percent less in a session, according to the company's blog post Wednesday.

Comments

Tech Bubble is over

[Anonymous Coward]

The bloated, tumorous mass that is Alphabet is reaching the end of it natural lifecycle.
Like the giant Dinosaurs of the Cretatious, tech companies have grown too massive, too specialized, and too homogeneous, needed ever more massive revenues simple to sustain the bloating overheads. Two ads. Three ads. Ten ads. When you're 3 stories tall and defecate piles larger than most other animals, you're always hungry for more.
But they are more vulnerable than ever to any oncoming "extinction event". In our case, likely a fiscal contraction brought about by some fumbling central bank, or a geo-political disaster brought to us by our genius ruling class.
Or hell, maybe people will just get tired of "high-tech" companies with a hundred thousand "smart guys" who can't seem to produce software or applications that even matches functionality commonplace 15 years ago, and who keep screwing up what we have left that's working, and who all seem to get paid 5 times more than anyone else actually producing something. The bigger Amazon gets, the less surprised I'll become of any sudden acceptance of nationalization among the growing American plebian class.

But I digress. Because let's be honest people. How many of you ever considered Youtube to be something worth paying for?

Part of the roadmap

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Back to back ads with reduced frequency.
2. Increased ad frequency.
3. Back to back to back ads with reduced ad frequency.
4. Increased frequency of ads.
5. Ads consume at least 6 minutes per half hour and are arranged into added-value blocks called 'commercial breaks'.

Re:Part of the roadmap

[rtb61]

I am a customer, trying to watch a youtube video. You, the fuck knuckle advertiser demand I watch the ad you want to scream at me first, will I buy your product, come on honestly will I buy your product, NO, I can not emphasise how much no. You are not selling me fucking anything except a hatred of your company, it is simply the way it is. I watch bugger all ads, I mean seriously bugger all, I pay for the bulk of my content, trying to force me to watch, what is now, an extremely annoying advertisement, does not make me want to do business with you, it makes me hate you, A WHOLE FUCKING LOT.

Ads on youtube can only work after content, voluntarily. Sure more will watch the ad at the beginning but you stupid fucking advertisers will not be selling anything other than annoyance and they will remember the cause of the annoyance, you fucking POS ad.

It's nothing like old idiot box ads, 15 minutes of every hour of viewing, people became accustomed, now, well, one or two ads a day and they really stand out in the worst way possible, pretty much a street side hawker running into your lounge room screaming at you that you buy the product and the only thing you remember fuck that company and fuck that product.

OK people, honesty time, how many of you people have bought a product based upon a YouTube ad and how many of you have not bought a product because of a Youtube ad. The only Youtube ads, that seem to have positive effect are ones embedded in the content as a sponsor of that content, Google makes no money from these, well they need to smarten up. Buying Youtube and burying it under the billions in debt created by buying it, not that smart a move, fucked profitability right up. Youtube want to sell an ad, they have to be banner ads in prominent locations aligned with the content that invite greater interaction.

Re:Are they not the same fucking ad?

[110010001000]

That is because the online ad system is a joke. Google shows the same ads over and over and are completely irrelevant. I don't know why companies still pour money into online advertising. It isn't targeted well at all.

Re: Obligatory "YouTube has ads?"

[Anonymous Coward]

It's impossible to be a freeloader on the internet. The internet was created for the FREE exchange of information and data. If you and your polluting advertising cronies don't like it, then get the fuck off of my internet, you eternal September scum.

Re: Obligatory "YouTube has ads?"

[Opportunist]

If I wanted to watch ads longer than the clips between them, I could have kept my TV.

You don't get it, do you?

[Opportunist]

Try, just TRY please, to get into the mindset of your user. He browses your videos or, better, he looks at his front page and sees a new video from his favorite YouTuber. Hey, great, the day just got better, a new video from HIM/HER and I get to watch it.

He clicks.

And is greeted by an ad.

Let's ponder for a moment what we have here now. We have someone whose mind is expecting and looking forward to seeing a video that he really, really wants to see. This ad could now be the most on-topic ad you could possibly imagine, it could be for the cure of his incurable brain tumor and he would cuss and curse for as long as he has to watch it before he can skip it. It could be the trailer for his favorite movie franchise that he has been watching religiously since birth. It does not matter.

It is NOT what he wants NOW.

And yes, that's worse than it was on cable. On cable, you knew that at 6:30pm your show starts. You knew that days in advance. Because that's how it always is. Watching an ad before does not change that. Your expectation is not disappointed because there was no immediate "want it now" motivation for you. Seeing a new video being offered IS such a moment. It's surprising (more or less), it's new and exciting and you want it NOW.

Before anyone goes "waaah, entitled crybaby can't wait..." YES. That is how people are. People are looking forward to something and anything standing between them and that something will be pushed out of the way. Especially if it's nothing they give half a fuck about like an ad.