Pause Ads: YouTube’s Pause Screen Now Targeted by Advertisers

YouTube has rolled out Pause Ads which allows ads to play as soon as a user pauses the screen. It essentially uses the pause screen time as a slot for ads.

This feature was unveiled during the Made on recently held YouTube event. Oluwa Falodun, a communication manager from YouTube has confirmed that the platform has started rolling this feature out. Google has been documented to have tested Pause Ads as a beta version last year. Although this beta version was tested out only with a smaller group of advertisers. The beta version proved to be a success among advertising firms and so Google has decided to go full throttle with this feature.

Described as a non-interruptive type of advertising, this feature was first launched on TVs through the YouTube app. Mobile users are steadily seeing this feature take effect as well. YouTube has not mentioned whether the amount of normal ads being displayed will be decreased. But it is unlikely as YouTube is pushing more ads onto its free users as evidenced by the unskippable ads introduced in 2023. YouTube is not the only platform that has rolled out pause screen ads. For instance, Hulu and Sling TV also have this feature integrated into their service.

Pause Ads: Reason behind the introduction of this new feature

YouTube’s direction into this ad-filled platform might have an ulterior motive. The video-sharing platform is probably pushing all these ads to drive their free users to subscribe to YouTube Premium.

YouTube Premium is YouTube’s subscription service that offers users zero ads while using YouTube. Other perks such as YouTube Music are also bundled into Premium’s plan. There are several different plans for users to choose from. The cheapest plan is the Student Plan but other plans such as Family and Individual plans are also offered.

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