YouTube is testing a new ad format that you won't hate as much - maybe?
In the ongoing battle between YouTube and viewers when it comes to ads and ad blockers, the streaming video site may have found a compromise, at least for live streams.
On its features and experiments page, YouTube details how it's testing a new ad format for live videos – a format that might just be the least invasive ever.
Also: Are your YouTube videos glitching? It could be your ad blocker
The site is calling the new ads "Picture in Picture Live Mid-Rolls," and -- just as the name implies -- they'll run during content without interrupting it.
Under the existing format, YouTube shows full-screen ads that completely interrupt content either before a video starts to play or in the middle. With the new format, ads will appear in a small window while the original content still plays. YouTube hasn't explained yet whether the ads will run silently or whether the ad audio will overtake the live audio.
"Monetized channels without rights management," YouTube explains, "can set mid-roll ad defaults for future live streams at the channel level." Those settings let creators choose monetization settings that will be the default for any newly created live streams. Creators who get access to Picture in Picture mid-roll ads will be able to turn them on by heading to the settings portion of their live control room.
Creators have quite a bit of flexibility and control over how current ads run. They can let YouTube place ads automatically at natural breaks, choosing from a conservative, balanced, or aggressive approach; they can set ads to appear for a set duration apart; or they can set ads to delay during important parts of a video.
The number of ads on the platform has been a point of contention lately. As software that blocks ads became prominent, YouTube not only condemned the practice of skirting commercials but went so far as to cut off access to videos for viewers with third-party ad blockers.
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Ads are, of course, necessary to pay for the very existence of YouTube. You can pay $13.99 a month for YouTube Premium to skip ads entirely (among other benefits), but most viewers utilize the free, ad-supported version.
YouTube didn't say if monetization for the new ads would differ from existing ads, but did say that creators would be able to see a breakdown of their revenue on the YouTube Analytics page.
For viewers, this hopefully means that YouTube understands the frustration with ads and is helping to make ads a little easier to swallow.