YouTube will have fewer ad breaks on TV, but there's a caveat

The sheer number of ad breaks on YouTube videos these days can ruin the viewing experience for anyone who doesn’t have YouTube Premium. YouTube aims to correct this by reducing the amount of ad breaks you see when watching on a TV. However, this change in the platform’s ad strategy doesn’t come without a bit of a caveat.

YouTube has been testing a new approach to its ad strategy in an attempt to make the viewing experience more seamless for viewers. In September, YouTube began showing fewer, but longer ad breaks to some of its users. Google says that viewers “experienced 29% longer viewing sessions before their next ad break.” Now Google has announced it is rolling out this experience to users across the globe.

Going forward, users who are watching the video platform on their TV will see an updated countdown timer located in the bottom right of the screen. Instead of telling you how many ads will be in the break, this timer will tell you how much time is left until the ad break is done or when you can skip it.

Fewer ad breaks weren’t the only thing Google had to announce today, it also revealed that ads are coming to YouTube Shorts on TV. According to the company, the experience will be similar to that on web and mobile with ads in between that users can skip with their TV remote.

Despite the breaks being longer, reducing the number of breaks should make the viewing experience a little more enjoyable than before. But we’re not exactly thrilled about ads invading Shorts.