YouTube tests a less intrusive ad format for livestreams

Reddit user PuffballOfficial12 shared that YouTube was now playing ads below the livestream on their mobile device. This means that users can continue watching the livestream even if the ad is playing, which, believe it or not, would be better than how YouTube currently handles ads during livestreams.

Traditionally, YouTube ads during live streams functioned like television commercials, completely taking over and obscuring the content. On mobile devices, this meant viewers would often miss crucial moments of a live event, such as a game-winning play or a breaking news update, while an unskippable 15-second ad played.

The new ad format changes the screen’s geometry. Instead of an overlay, the ad occupies a dedicated space below the video window on mobile, where the live chat used to be.

Not all is well with the new ad format, though. Reddit user yurduminsan notes that the ad still plays sound, while another user mentioned that the ad cannot be muted either, so you still end up having to go back in the livestream to catch up on missed content.

The general user sentiment seems to be cautiously positive, as this new format feels like the “lesser of two evils.” YouTube would need to figure out a way to prioritize stream audio during an ad, or provide a dedicated mute toggle for the ad window, and most users would be satisfied with the outcome.

This experiment comes at a critical time for the platform. YouTube recently rolled out a price hike for Premium plans, pushing the Individual tier to $15.99/month and the Family plan to $26.99/month. For many, the value proposition of ad-free viewing is starting to wear thin as subscription fatigue sets in. By introducing a less disruptive live ad format, YouTube may be trying to soften the blow for those downgrading to the ad-supported tier. If the platform can prove that ads don’t have to mean potentially missing the climax of a live event, it might prevent an exodus of viewers to other platforms like Twitch, which has faced its own share of backlash for intrusive mid-rolls.

As with most YouTube features, this appears to be a server-side test affecting a limited number of accounts — I couldn’t get the concurrent ads to trigger during livestreams on my end. There is no official word yet on a wider rollout or whether this is even anything more than a bug. We’ve reached out to Google to learn more about this ad format experiment and will update this article as we learn more.