YouTube will have fewer ad breaks on TV — but the ads are getting longer

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

The next time you sit down to watch YouTube on your TV, you might notice fewer ads breaking up the video you’re watching. That’s because YouTube is making ads on TVs appear less frequently, but in exchange, you’ll have to sit through longer commercials.

YouTube started testing longer but less frequent ad breaks in September, and now they’re launching across all TVs. The change means you’ll see an updated countdown timer in the bottom-right corner of your screen that will now show how long you have left until the entire ad break ends or when you can skip.

GIF: YouTube

YouTube previously displayed how many ads were included in the break in the top-left corner of your screen, along with a countdown timer for each…

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