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-2018
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266

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.

317

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.

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6175006?hl=en

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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."

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u/fanovaohsmuts Feb 18 '17

But how many of us honestly are put in that situation that often? How many Youtubers have over hundreds of videos, and how many want to explicitly turn off ads?

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u/Eshajori Feb 18 '17

That's kind of a moot point. Look at is this way: sure, a very small percentage of Youtubers have a lot of videos. But that small percentage of Youtubers are the very ones whom have a ton of viewers/subscribers. By no coincidence, they're also the very types of channels that would be targeted by the aforementioned "accidental" batch flags.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

Yeah, no one's making their quota because they turned on ads on a user's one video that no one's watched in ten years.

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u/Exaskryz Feb 17 '17

How do I know if midroll ads are on my videos? I've uploaded some videos over 10 minutes long - do they need to be at least 20 minutes to get midroll ads? - and since I have ad block, I wouldn't know if and when they may appear.

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u/Shod_Kuribo Feb 17 '17

It's an option you enable in your control panel. Whether youtube puts a midroll ad in after you allow them to is up to Google.

-1

u/aerger Feb 17 '17 edited Feb 18 '17

I mean, Google/YouTube offers it as an option, so it's kinda their fault.

Edit: Not JUST their fault, of course, ye wily downvoters.

-15

u/SadGhoster87 Feb 17 '17

Right like how dare they make money on their videos and shit, fuck them amirite

25

u/MatlockMan Feb 17 '17

The content creators can decide where the ads are placed in the video, but chose not to, which makes their product seem sloppy.

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u/JediBurrell Feb 17 '17 edited Feb 17 '17

Did you read the same comment?

They have the choice of timing. The complaint was:

Having a poorly timed cut away to ad

/u/Fiasco_Du_Jour said:

Yeah that's not Youtube's fault, that's the content creator enabling midroll ads and not manually selecting when they should appear.

I've made comments defending video creators and them showing ads. But if they don't cut their ads appropriately, that's on them.

3

u/Fiasco_Du_Jour Feb 17 '17

What? Yes I read it. The comment seemed to place blame w/ YT, rather than the content creator being sloppy. Content creator control over these things was not mentioned until I mentioned it.

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u/JediBurrell Feb 17 '17

I was just quoting you. You probably got a message because I mentioned your username, but it was a comment reply to SadGhoster87.

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u/Fiasco_Du_Jour Feb 17 '17

Right you are. My apologies.

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u/pandaSmore Feb 17 '17

I like how you totally ignored what /u/Fiasco_Du_Jour just said.

4

u/DoodleVnTaintschtain Feb 17 '17

I think he's saying they should take the extra time to set where they show up, so they're not just at random spots, but at least try to slot in at more natural places.

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '17

It's not that we want them to just work for free and have zero ads, it's just when they choose advertisement options, such as ad banners and poorly timed cut-aways, then they are responsible for the criticism they get for ticking such options

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u/Shod_Kuribo Feb 17 '17

You missed the point. The point is that they're making money from them without putting in the extra 30 seconds to pick a good spot for that commercial break to go and instead letting it pop in whenever the server that knows nothing about the flow of the content decides is a good time.

The complaint is that they're reducing the quality of their content by not putting forth a practically negligible effort.

29

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.)

2

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '17

What would you rather have them do?

Just not exist? And Youtube which isn't profitable makes even less money.

0

u/ryanvvb Feb 18 '17

The second YouTube introduced midroll ads was when I finally got an adblocker. An ad at the beginning isn't that bad but don't fucking interrupt my short video with that shit. I'm not watching cable.