YouTube has stated that it will stop supporting “unskippable” ads for users who are yet to use the YouTube Red version. Users are familiar with different forms of advertising the video service features. YouTube has stated that it’ll stop supporting “unskippable” 30-second pre-video advertisements in favour of shorter formats.
A YouTube spokesperson has confirmed the change with this statement, “We are committed to providing better ad experience for users online. As a part of that, we have decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead on formats that work well for both users and advertisers.”
As to what might replace it, UK publication Campaign believes that YouTube will make more extensive use of the six-second unskippable video ad instead. Campaign states that any ad shorter than 30 seconds can be made unskippable, so users may still run into fairly long 20-second commercials.