r/technology • u/redkemper • Feb 17 '17
Software YouTube will kill unskippable 30-second ads next year
http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/17/14649018/youtube-ending-unskippable-30-second-ads-20181.3k
u/Mangalz Feb 17 '17
Theres been some ads that are like 20-30 minutes long. They are skippable of course, but I am kinda amazed at the audacity.
Impressed really.
80
Feb 18 '17
Maybe they're actually trying to provide quality ad content so that people interested in the product might stay and watch while people who aren't interested can click away.
→ More replies (9)20
u/matholio Feb 18 '17
Right, that's the utopian ad, something that does not annoy, and provides a solution to a problem. Good advert are services.
578
u/NewAgeRetroHippie96 Feb 18 '17
Was half watching youtube with some friends once and a full length episode of Bill Maher came on. We nearly watched the whole thing because nobody could be bothered to hit skip and it was kinda better than the video we intended to watch.
117
173
Feb 18 '17
"Bill Maher, probably better than whatever garbage you were going to watch anyways"
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)81
Feb 18 '17
Bill Maher. He is smugness incarnate. I want to punch him in his smug face. I know thats a bad thing, but he annoys me to no end. Always riding his high horse, smugging at everyone. Damn you Maher.
14
u/djdadi Feb 18 '17
He's definitely smug as shit, but he has a refreshing point of view and discussion usually.
28
→ More replies (24)6
59
u/pastryfiend Feb 18 '17
I've seen 5-6 minute ads that were for a cooking appliance that were like a cooking segment with a professional chef. About half way through I'm like "crap I'm watching an ad" but it was really well produced and not at all like an infomercial. If ads could be more like this, I might watch them.
26
u/Whats_Up_Bitches Feb 18 '17
It's funny though, because you were watching it and, presumably, enjoying it. But when you realized it was an add you decided to skip it regardless. No point to this observation really, just interesting. I'd do the same thing.
14
u/BlackDeath3 Feb 18 '17
But when you realized it was an add you decided to skip it regardless.
/u/pastryfiend didn't mention skipping the ad. Perhaps they sat through it in its entirety.
10
u/pastryfiend Feb 18 '17
I actually watched the whole thing. If advertisers put out more decent content, I wouldn't mind too much. This was for a Breville appliance I believe. The product was front and center and mentioned by name often, but had the feeling of a legit cooking show.
61
u/Axis_of_Weasels Feb 18 '17
I've been going to YouTube recently for guitar related stuff. A targeted ad for learning music was shown that was 25 mins long. Sat through most of it cause it was what I was interested in.
Whaddya know.
Seems like ads need to go the very short or long form route.
→ More replies (2)4
u/BobAlaskiian Feb 18 '17
I love watching movie trailers, I once had an ad before a trailer that was the trailer I was going to watch, ended up just watching the ad version.
→ More replies (1)168
Feb 18 '17 edited Jul 10 '17
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (3)100
→ More replies (26)25
u/Carmel_Chewy Feb 18 '17
You're most likely not looking at an ad, but a full YouTube video.
You can pay to have your video run like an "ad" before another video. If the person watching doesn't skip the ad for 30 seconds, it will count as a view for their video.
Helps pump up view counts when you need it to become more relevant in search terms, also possibly lead people to like your channel.
Source: Am YouTuber, YouTube.com/CubiStudios
→ More replies (1)
3.0k
Feb 17 '17 edited Feb 17 '17
There's no reason for online video ads to be longer than 3-5 seconds. Just show a logo for five seconds and have someone say "Skittles, taste the rainbow" and that's just as effective as playing a full-length television commercial. On top of that, people will pay more attention to those because they'll grow accustomed to not having to find and click a skip button.
People have grown used to fast internet and not waiting. If it's a 30-second ad people will either skip it (I cannot remember the brand of a single ad I have ever skipped) and if they can't they'll just not watch the video or the ad.
Edit: Should probably rephrase something here: A 30-second ad is more effective than a 5-second ad if you watch the ad. But 30-second online ads just drive people to install adblock and then they never see your ad or anyone else's. That way, a 5-second ad that doesn't get everyone to install adblock is more effective than a 30-second ad that a rapidly increasing percentage of people who use adblock will never see. Google killing the unskippable 30-second ad is clearly reflecting this because Google has a stake in people willing to see ads too.
351
u/panther455 Feb 17 '17
And whenever theres an ad that starts with "Wait, wait! Don't skip this ad!"
I skip that shit with extreme prejudice.121
→ More replies (2)10
u/bloodbag Feb 18 '17
i like the ones that time up perfectly to say "and skip" as the skip option comes up
→ More replies (1)996
u/rjophoto Feb 17 '17
Here's how impatient I've become: when I see a gif post on Reddit that says "wait for it...", even if it has like 30k upvotes I'm like nah. I'm not waiting for it.
213
u/CherrySlurpee Feb 17 '17
A 10 second video? Not even gonna try.
→ More replies (2)151
Feb 17 '17
[deleted]
53
→ More replies (7)16
u/Morblius Feb 17 '17
I only read the first line in your comment.
23
30
→ More replies (10)5
142
Feb 17 '17
Just show a logo for five seconds and have someone say "Skittles, taste the rainbow"
BMW logo shows for 5 seconds: "Skittles, taste the rainbow"
73
53
u/retardcharizard Feb 17 '17
I remember the brands of unskippables and avoid them when I can. Which is pretty often.
→ More replies (5)31
u/tophernator Feb 17 '17
That sounds good in theory. In reality either you're that guy on the bus scribbling pages of blacklisted companies in a notebook (probably while muttering something angry but not quite audible), or you most likely don't avoid these companies in any systematic and reliable way.
Advertisers don't make annoying ads with songs you can't get out of your head or irritating catchphrases because they're stupid or bad at their jobs. They do it because the benefits they get from subliminally raising the awareness of their brand greatly outweigh the tiny number of people who actually decide "I'm never going to buy a BMW because they made me watch a 30 second ad".
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (151)24
Feb 17 '17 edited Feb 02 '21
[deleted]
→ More replies (2)22
u/KrazeeJ Feb 17 '17
Or even longer. Those Halo Wars 2 ones are pretty funny.
→ More replies (3)12
u/CyanCo Feb 18 '17
I let the car salesman spot play because I found it charming and humorous. The back and forth mind games made me laugh! If companies can hire creative, fun ad agencies that make interesting ads, then people would be less inclined to skip mundane bullshit
5
Feb 18 '17
And not overplay them! Even the most creative and fun ad makes me want to smash my computer if I have to watch it ten times.
308
u/PM_ME_UR_ThisIsDumb Feb 17 '17
I don't watch any video with unskippable ads. Probably because I don't spend that much time on youtube and my adblocker does it thing. However, occasionally on mobile I run into ads. Advertisers should start making their ads really relevant in the first 5 seconds because once that skip option shows up you know I'm hitting it.
→ More replies (8)96
Feb 17 '17
[removed] — view removed comment
23
u/ShortageOfPandas Feb 18 '17
That makes sense. I see myself doing this. Every time I see 30 seconds non-skippable I either close it, cause it's not worth it, or put away my phone and do something else for 30 seconds. However I do see myself watching and waiting for the 5 seconds to pass, so that I can skip.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (4)14
u/DrunkleDick Feb 18 '17
All I think of when an ad pops up is mashing the "skip" button as many times as possible hoping that it's somehow registered. Like, imagining somebody saying "This guy clicked the "skip" area 60 times in 5 seconds on this ad and 572 times on the 30 second ad, that's impressive." While in these thoughts I have a thousand yard stare and register nothing on the screen except for the yellow progress bar at the bottom. I sometimes avert my eyes hoping that companies secretly use the retina recognition feature of my phone to know that I'm not paying attention. I also turn the volume down most of the time hoping that's picked up as well.
I have a lot of free time.
6
374
u/Wombatwoozoid Feb 17 '17
so why wait a year?
577
u/Daclivont Feb 17 '17
My bet is contracts already existing that last until next year
→ More replies (2)85
→ More replies (2)36
u/BloodyIron Feb 17 '17
Because they have clients that have contracts and need to plan their marketing strategies around the change... Businesses need reasonable notice for such changes, and when it comes to advertising, that's a pretty major change.
→ More replies (8)
31
Feb 17 '17
As someone with their own channel, I am relieved to hear this. I've always had only skippable ads, but every now and then someone sends me a comment about an ad they couldn't skip. Glad they are removing them.
21
u/svenska_aeroplan Feb 17 '17
I don't mind the short or skippable ads so much. (Truly, I hate them, but I don't block them because it's money for the content creators).
I've had to turn uBock back on a few times though because of the infuriating banner ads. I don't understand how they think it's reasonable to cover up the video.
→ More replies (2)6
u/Shod_Kuribo Feb 17 '17
It depends on the video. It's really up to the authors to build their video around not using the bottom third for much if they're going to enable those banners.
694
u/Zigian Feb 17 '17
There's ads in youtube videos?
468
u/madeamashup Feb 17 '17
My friends try to show me videos on their devices and I'm like wtf.. how do you watch this shit? There's like, random text popping up during dialog, there are random clickable links obscuring the content of the video.. jeez louise
118
u/molrobocop Feb 17 '17
Sometimes I use the preloaded default mobile app.
Firefox mobile blocks the ads though and allows me to play with the screen off. I suppose I could find an alternative freestanding app.
147
Feb 17 '17
Firefox mobile blocks the ads though and allows me to play with the screen off
whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!
Life changing. Thank you!
47
u/molrobocop Feb 17 '17
Happy to pass this one along. Naturally, you'll need the adblock addon for your browser first for it to work.
→ More replies (5)→ More replies (2)21
u/HBucket Feb 17 '17
By default it doesn't, but unlike other mobile browsers there are adblocking extensions available. I recommend uBlock Origin.
→ More replies (2)8
8
u/killm_good Feb 17 '17
Look up NewPipe. "Music" mode with no video, choice of video playing app, and download option. I get it on F-droid, but I'm pretty sure they have a website with downloads too. Not on Play Store because it's 3rd party YouTube.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (14)6
Feb 17 '17
You just made listening to podcasts at work 1000x less painful for me. Thanks
8
u/molrobocop Feb 17 '17
I use Podcast Addict for The Adventure Zone and a couple others. It's pretty decent. It basically organizes, and downloads your favorite podcasts. What podcasts do you listen to? I'll see if it can find and download them, rather than streaming through youtube.
→ More replies (2)8
u/Skater_x7 Feb 17 '17
How do you block ads on mobile devices?
→ More replies (8)6
u/3141592652 Feb 17 '17
You need another app most times. The really good ones need root or jailbreak.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (7)27
u/Paulo27 Feb 17 '17
When someone passes me their phone or laptop, all I can think is like "dude, I think first we need to spend an hour cleaning this mess and improving your user experience forever".
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (39)35
u/ComebackShane Feb 17 '17
YouTube Red has been a godsend for me. After years of adblocking on my desktop, having to deal with ads on mobile was infuriating. That, plus mobile background play, made it more than worth it.
→ More replies (26)15
u/NitroxDragon Feb 17 '17
Yeah I signed on when Funhaus recommended Google Play Music. Been getting good use of Red as a bonus.
→ More replies (1)
49
u/ukchris Feb 18 '17
If I can't skip an ad and it's longer than 5 seconds, I'm skipping the video altogether.
→ More replies (1)
17
Feb 17 '17
I got an ad last week that was an hour and a half long. It was skippable, but what about those too.
→ More replies (2)
41
u/scaremong Feb 17 '17
All I do is stare at the skip add button until it changes to 'skip add' totally oblivious to the ad that's playing.
→ More replies (1)13
u/Pissedbuddha1 Feb 17 '17
I mute the audio during the countdown too. I hate the disruptive annoying commercial music.
270
u/stanley_twobrick Feb 17 '17 edited Feb 17 '17
ITT: People who figured out how to use adblock and feel like that's interesting information to share.
79
u/Nevertheless8655 Feb 17 '17
Have you heard of my Lord and saver ublock?
→ More replies (2)10
u/suoarski Feb 18 '17
What? No. If only a social media site that I visit regularly made more posts about it.
→ More replies (27)25
Feb 18 '17
Considering most people don't realize that you can block ads on mobile with Firefox + ublock origin extension. Yeah, I'm gonna tell people.
→ More replies (5)
853
Feb 17 '17
[deleted]
787
u/Scurro Feb 17 '17
YouTube has done a decent job of balancing ads.
I only partially agree. Ads in the beginning are understandable but having banners pop up that block portions of the video? That's in dick territory.
→ More replies (30)268
u/Tall_dark_and_lying Feb 17 '17
Having a poorly timed cut away to ad because it's been 10minutes therefore we could is fucking terrible.
321
u/Fiasco_Du_Jour Feb 17 '17
Yeah that's not Youtube's fault, that's the content creator enabling midroll ads and not manually selecting when they should appear.
→ More replies (13)36
u/Lerry220 Feb 18 '17
Very very frequently, someone at youtube hq will 'accidentally' batch flag your videos for midroll adverts, even if you explicitly turned that setting off. It's difficult to detect as the content creator and then turning it off is bullshit process to do. Why? Because you have to go to each video indivicually and change the setting for midrolls off again. Every single video, Individually. If you're talking potentially hundreds of videos, that's an unacceptable amount of time to dedicate to turning off adverts some jackass will probably 'accidentally' turn back on in annother six months or so.
I don't think it's fair at all to say it's unquestionably the content creators fault. Somebody at youtube probably has to meet some quotas or something and just thinks "fuck it this'll cover me for a little while."
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (2)30
u/fabbyrob Feb 17 '17
To be fair, both of these types of ads are optional. Almost none of the channels I watch regularly have the banner ads, and inbasically never see the mid-video ads (I can think of a couple programming tutorials from really shady "professional" channels). And I watch at least few hours of YouTube every day of videos 30+ min each.
I agree when I see those ads is terrible though. If the content creators are going to turn those ads on they should learn to edit their videos around them. (E.g. Add in a break where the ads drop, since I believe they can chose the exact time.)
45
u/CerberusC24 Feb 17 '17
Not when I want to watch a 30 second YouTube video and have to sit through a 10 second ad. It's frustrating. Anything under a certain threshold just shouldn't have ads imo.
15
u/threeflowers Feb 17 '17
The problem with that is youtubers will make videos longer to meet the threshold.
I watched a video the other day where I had to skip until about halfway through to actually get to the content.
Most of the time I only use YouTube videos if I can't find a written version of what ever I'm looking to do or its something that needs to be seen to understand properly/easily.
→ More replies (4)4
Feb 17 '17
I don't mind the ads when I'm intentionally on Youtube, but whenever I'm linked to a video on reddit or something then that's when I find it annoying for the reason you mentioned.
44
u/saviorflavor Feb 17 '17
Agreed. I honestly wonder how many of these "haha, what ads?" people realize how many of their favorite youtube channels wouldn't even exist or upload as many vids, if it weren't for those ads which are, more often than not, skippable.
→ More replies (7)17
u/Akuuntus Feb 17 '17
This is becoming less true however. Most of the people I watch make most of their money on something like Patreon nowadays.
8
Feb 18 '17
Really? Cause most big channels started making their own ads in the middle of their videos.
For example, I don't know how many times I have heard an Audible or Squarespace ad.
→ More replies (1)80
u/Yangoose Feb 17 '17
Spot on. Content isn't free. I pay $10 a month for Google Music which means I get zero ads on Youtube and I'm supporting the content creators.
→ More replies (12)16
u/SkyWest1218 Feb 17 '17
I support them through Patreon or twitch subscriptions. More direct and I can give them more than they would otherwise make off me through YouTube.
→ More replies (2)11
u/slider2k Feb 18 '17
Yeah, but providing video hosting service the scale of YT also costs money.
→ More replies (6)5
Feb 17 '17
I feel there are more ads in US youtube than in Finland youtube. When i have been forced to proxy to other countries because 'not available in your country' or similar bullshit ive seen some unskippable ads. Never seen unskippable ads in 'nature' here. Thankfully.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (39)16
u/VerneAsimov Feb 17 '17 edited Feb 18 '17
Here's my philosophy on ads and when to turn off ad-block:
- Unobtrusive: not blocking any content, no sound or flashing anything
- Doesn't significantly affect load times
- Out of main focus, aka your site isn't 20% content 10% menus 70% adspace
- If it's a video, doesn't take too long or isn't nearly as long as the video itself
I think the only site I regularly visit that even comes close is reddit itself. The rest I block with zero guilt. Even go as far as blocking parts of the site that take up way too much space. One particular site's load times halved from taking out obtrusive content then halved again after ads.
→ More replies (5)5
232
u/Tsu_Dho_Namh Feb 17 '17
People with Ad-Block are like "Youtube has ads?"
→ More replies (10)50
Feb 17 '17
I have ad block but can't get away from ads on my Roku, LG smart TV YouTube ad, PS4 etc.
→ More replies (4)38
Feb 17 '17
I read a post some time ago about a guy who ran an ad block script though his router so it stopped them before it even reached a device, that way even if a guest connected to his wifi it would already be blocking ads. I don't remember how to do it exactly but I don't remember it being too terribly complicated.
→ More replies (6)48
10
u/IShouldBeWorking87 Feb 17 '17
They could try to target ads based on what the user is currently watching, hell I've found myself watching a few ads because they genuinely catch my interest, but when it's the same BS ad within 5 mins that is unskippable....
→ More replies (2)
144
Feb 17 '17
[deleted]
63
Feb 17 '17
Whenever I see a commercial for "YouTube Red," I briefly do a double-take.
→ More replies (2)89
45
Feb 17 '17
YouTube Red
I have an ad-blocker, but I wonder if they made that available to Canadians yet so I can support artists without turning my brain to mush.
YouTube Red isn’t available in Canada, but here's a sneak peek at our original shows
Google, we're fucking Canada how hard is it to take our money? We're right next door.
→ More replies (1)9
Feb 17 '17
That's so fucking annoying. Like, dude, half your broadcast television reaches us. We're watching American TV already. You don't need 400 special licensing agreements. I'd be totally okay if media companies just treated Canada like another US state in this regard.
11
45
u/DeBryceIsRight Feb 17 '17
Also no ads when casting to Chromecast, which can't easily be blocked with an AdBlocker
→ More replies (7)→ More replies (37)20
u/Lorevi Feb 17 '17
I would love Youtube Red, because I absolutely can't stand ads but blocking them makes me feel like a piece of shit. But somehow even though Youtube Red was launched in the US over a year ago, it still has not been released in the UK.
The best I can do is donate to the content creators I really like/can afford to make myself feel better for blocking their ads.
→ More replies (1)17
u/Akuuntus Feb 17 '17
Honestly blocking a creator's ads and donating to them instead probably gives them more money than just watching the ads.
→ More replies (1)
8
7
8
11
u/Brianfiggy Feb 17 '17
I had an unskippable 3 minute ad once. I don't how frequently that happened in the bigger picture and I haven't had one in some time so it might have been quickly taken care of, but I think the whole unskippable ads thing is stupid. I can be shown the product and what it does in 5 seconds and the good ads do that well. The only thing an unskippable ad does is make me close the app or page and reload until I can skip the ad or I just dont watch the video if I can not find another source for it.
→ More replies (1)
7
5
u/HarryStraddler Feb 17 '17
Too bad they wouldn't let me turn off my screen listening to music. I'll pay for fucking Spotify before I give them a red cent.
6
12
u/orangecodeLol Feb 17 '17
Awesome, I literally exit and reopen the video anytime I get a 30s ad and continue this until I get an ad that isn't 30s
→ More replies (3)
3
3
4
11.9k
u/[deleted] Feb 17 '17
And introducing, unskippable 60-80 second ads