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YouTube to Ditch Its Longest Unskippable Ads

Bye-bye 30-second ads. Photo: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Starting in 2018, YouTube has announced the platform will no longer show 30-second unskippable ads before your selected content. The idea is, Google (who owns YouTube) wants to provide a better experience for viewers, or at least one that doesn’t inspire them to use an ad-blocker or, worse, say “screw it” and not even bother with watching the video they clicked on in the first place.

“As part of that, we’ve decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers,” a Google spokesperson told Campaign. YouTube will still have 15-second and 20-second ads that you can’t skip, but just think of what you’ll be able to do with those ten seconds you’ll be saving.

Though the move is still months away, this doesn’t sound like a bad move on YouTube’s part. At any rate, it’s definitely better than that time they introduced a new style of unskippable bumper ads, which they tried to brand to viewers as “poems.” Because comparing advertisements for Under Armour and Sprite to haiku is definitely the best way to get people to turn off their ad-blockers.

YouTube to Ditch Its Longest Unskippable Ads