22 February 2017 11:19 am
Variety.com: YouTube is killing one of its more obstrusive ad formats: The Google-owned video service said Friday that it was going to phase out unskippable 30-second preroll ads by next year.
British advertising magazine Campaign was first to report the news Friday, noting that the site would still offer shorter preroll ads that can’t be skipped by viewers. These include 20-second ad clips, as well as a six-second bumper ad format that YouTube introduced about a year ago. A YouTube spokesperson confirmed the move when contacted by Variety with the following statement:
“We’re committed to providing a better ads experience for users online. As part of that, we’ve decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers.”