YouTube is introducing 30-second TV ads that you can’t skip unless you pay for Premium

In a twist of fate, Google is now playing with the idea of introducing a less ideal viewing experience for YouTube users on their living room televisions. Instead of the normal advertisements you get if you’re not paying for Premium each month, the platform will soon show you 30-second advertisements that simply can’t be skipped.

Normally, you’d get two 15-second ads spread throughout the video you’re casting to or watching on the big screen, but now, those will be combined into one super long, drawn-out ad that will yank you out of the immersive story you’re enjoying.

To make things worse, if you choose to pause the video to go use the bathroom, cook some food or just take a break, you’ll be inundated with a pause screen advertisement instead too before long.

Interestingly, instead of taking up your entire TV screen, the pause screen ad will show to the right of your paused video, which will be shrunk down to a large thumbnail while the rest of the display shows a static ad with a QR code or some other information. At least this can be dismissed with the click of a button, but it’s still frustrating to see Google shove ads into every nook and cranny it can find across its ecosystem this year.

A few weeks ago, the company started placing ads in the search bar of the Google Play Store, more ads in Gmail at the top of your inbox and more. At this time, the unskippable 30-second ads or pause screen ads have no official release date, but I’m sure you’re not really looking forward to it, no matter how much advertisers are.