YouTube reportedly ditching long, unskippable ads

YouTube’s in-video advertising will undergo a transformation in the coming months, this according to a new report by Campaign.

The report suggests that the Google-owned video powerhouse is looking at a new advertising strategy, and will ditch its 30-second unskippable ad format looking instead to more user-friendly, bite-sized ad snippets.

The company has “decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers,” according to a Google spokesman quoted by Campaign.

According to a new report, YouTube will be ditching longer advertisements on its platform in favour of more user-friendly, shorter ads

There is a bit of a catch though.

This change will only be noticeable in 2018. Who knows if the planet will still be spinning by then.

Additionally this also means more shorter ads in video, which are more annoying in some cases. We’ve seen six-second ads make their occasional appearance in clips since April last year, but these may soon be joined by 15- or even 20-second unskippable advertisements.

YouTube hasn’t yet published an official statement on its site, but a move towards shorter ads does seem to fit with how users are consuming media on other video-punting services like Snapchat, and Instagram.