Google will make users watch ads on YouTube

At the annual YouTube Brandcast event, Google announced that it is launching a new advertising format: from now on, users of the YouTube application will be shown 30-second advertising videos on smart TVs without skipping them, reports The Verge.

The 30-second ads will be shown instead of two 15-second consecutive clips. Those who don't want to watch ads can use a paid subscription to YouTube Premium, which costs $11.99 per month in the US.

In addition, YouTube plans to run interstitial ads during the pause. Such ads can be turned off by clicking the "decline" button. The launch date for both innovations has not yet been announced.

NEWS.am Tech reported earlier that YouTube will not allow watching videos if the user's browser has an ad-blocking program, such as AdBlock, installed. If such blocking is detected, the service will not allow you to watch the video and will inform you that the use of such technologies is not allowed.

In 2022, YouTube's advertising revenue was 29.2 billion dollars, in 2021 – 28.8 billion dollars. In the last quarter of 2022, the service earned $7.96 billion from advertising, about 8% less than the same period last year ($8.63 billion). At the end of last year, YouTube reported that the Premium package has about 80 million subscribers, 30 million more than in 2021. Google's advertising revenue fell 3.6% to $59 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022.