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YouTube confirms your pause screen is now fair game for ads
(www.theverge.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
You must be young (or without memory). YouTube ads started exactly with picture ads (horizontal banners), but that was not sufficient, and ~12 years later there already are 2 unskipable videos at start, middle and finish (and several at the middle if in a long video). Your ad at the pause may start with pictures even, but videos and later longer videos will follow.