Image: TechSpot
Get ready to be served ads even when you pause your video. YouTube is testing "pause ads" on some TV apps, where the video you're watching is shrunk to sit alongside an ad when you hit pause. This strategy, lauded by Google's Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler, might see a wider rollout.
While not interrupting your viewing flow directly, pause ads add another layer of marketing to the already ad-supported YouTube. Unlike some streamers (think Hulu or Peacock), YouTube likely won't ditch traditional mid-roll ads, making pause ads an unwelcome bonus.
Is this the price of free YouTube? Or a cynical ploy to push users toward the ad-free Premium tier? While details on a wider release are scarce, pause ads could become the norm across streaming services, mirroring the recent ad creep on Roku's home screen.