Watching YouTube videos could soon test our patience. The Google platform seems to be testing new features on the advertising side, seeking to insert even more spots in the middle and before the videos.
Several people have posted on Reddit and Twitter that they had had the unpleasant surprise of seeing up to ten commercials interrupt their videos. The latter, although short (5 to 6 seconds), cannot however be “zapped”, making the viewing experience relatively frustrating.
Between 5 and 10 micropubs
This trend, born a few weeks ago, does not seem to have fully democratized since some Internet users have not noticed a significant increase in the volume of ads. The platform may test new ways of displaying advertising to see how this is received by the public. Unsurprisingly, affected users don’t seem thrilled, as evidenced by the many discussions around ad blockers that are popping up on Reddit.
Until then, commercials before or during a video were often limited to a maximum of two spots and could sometimes be skipped. The switch is therefore quite radical, even if some Internet users are lucky enough to see “only” 6, 7 or 8 advertisements instead of 10. The frequency of advertising breaks also seems to have increased for some, even on relatively short videos .
YouTube has not officially communicated on the subject, the Twitter account “Team YouTube” merely explaining that these micropubs are “bumper ads”, precisely designed to be very short. YouTube is probably a good way to grow its premium subscriber base.