YouTube, the video-sharing social media platform wholly owned by Google. It has recently silently implemented a new ad format starting this September 2022. Users who are not subscribed to Premium. They will now receive up to 5 advertisements to be watched, before your video starts.
The news broke out when several Free users started complaining on Twitter and Reddit. That they have been receiving 5 ads instead of 2, before they could watch their video.
For several YouTube Free users, they reported that they have received 5 unskippable advertisements as opposed to skippable advertisements before a video-watching session. And this caused dissent and upset among the users.
Youtube is launching unskippable ads
Regarding the matter, YouTube has issued an official reply on Twitter acknowledging the situation and stated that the new 5-ad phenomenon. It could happen to users with the company’s certain type of ad format called bumper ads. As explained by YouTube, these bumper ads are short-form ads on the platform, That are typically 6 seconds long, and unfortunately unskippable.
Currently not all Free users are experiencing the “5 ads before your video starts” situation. So it seems like YouTube is currently testing out the waters among selected Free users. As of now, most users of Free are only receiving up to 2 ads before their video starts. But it is not known whether the “5-ad format” change will be rolled out to all Free users soon.
Lastly, YouTube reiterates that if both Free and Premium users have any feedback regarding YouTube’s ad policy, users can always send feedback directly to the company via the “Send Feedback” tool on the company’s video-sharing platform.
