YouTube first spoke about pause ads last year when it started trialing them in select regions. At the time, the company said that when you pause a video, it will shrink, and an ad will appear next to it.
“In Q1, we saw strong traction from the introduction of a pause ads pilot on connected TVs, a new non-interruptive ad format that appears when users pause their organic content,” Schindler noted. He went on to share that YouTube’s pause ads are “driving strong brand lift results” and “are commanding premium pricing from advertisers.”
Schindler didn’t share any timelines for when pause ads will start appearing on YouTube, but we know they’ll first roll out on smart TVs. The nature of these ads, including their duration, skippability, and more is still unclear. We also don’t know if Google plans to introduce these ads on YouTube’s mobile apps.
I don't know my smart TV hasn't been hooked up to the Internet and my streaming stick doesn't show me those kinds of ads. I do pay to avoid it. I have youtube premium. In fact I was grandfathered into the $7.99 rate from having Google play music back in the day and my rates only just increased. The point I was trying to make is that this isn't going to just stay as the static ad. It will absolutely change with time because Google's losing money on the ad revenue business (it's just not as lucrative as they need it to be to keep investors happy). The static ads probably will go to full blown video ads at some point (and extensions will counter that by muting tabs and auto stopping playing popup videos until the end user clicks the play button etc because people will try to get around this). This is just the newest progression in a long line of progressions of terrible ad implementation.
I don't want billboards in my living room though. It's reasonable to not want billboards in your living room.