YouTube tests picture-in-picture to make ads more bearable

Are you sick and tired of having YouTube’s pervasive ads interrupt the livestream you’re watching? It seems YouTube is finally willing to make its ads a little less annoying, at least for live videos. The company is now testing a new ad format that won’t disrupt your viewing experience.

YouTube has announced that it is conducting a new experiment that should result in ads being a little more bearable than before. According to the firm, it will begin testing an ad format that allows ads to run alongside a livestream in picture-in-picture. Currently, when it’s time for an ad, the viewer is taken away from the stream as the video cuts to a fullscreen ad. In this new format, however, the viewer will be able to keep watching live content without having to fear missing anything because of the ad break.

For creators, YouTube says channels will be able to choose the new format from their monetization settings. They’ll also be able to set this setting as the default for any future live streams. According to YouTube:

Monetized channels without rights management can set mid-roll ad defaults for future live streams at the channel level. Channel level settings let you choose monetization settings that will be the default for any newly created live streams.

To choose your channel level settings: Open the Live Control Room and then In the bottom-left corner, click Settings

In addition, creators will be able to see the breakout of their ad revenue from live streams and live replays on their analytics page.

While this test seems to suggest YouTube understands how disruptive its ads are, there may be another intention behind the move. This is just speculation, but it’s possible that YouTube believes PiP ads could help dissuade viewers from enabling ad blockers on its site.

The company says users will begin seeing the live mid-roll test in the coming months. However, only select users on select devices will get to see the new ad format.