Skip to main content

YouTube introduces a massive ad box to its TV app

YouTube introduces a massive ad box to its TV app

/

A prominent feature on the standard site

Share this story

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

The homepage on YouTube’s TV app is about to feature a major disruption that will be familiar to people who use the main site: a giant advertisement at the top of the page.

The large ad is referred to as the YouTube Masthead, and it’s considered a prime advertisement slot. Much like the masthead box on YouTube’s regular site, advertisements on the TV app will “autoplay for viewers after a few seconds on all compatible devices,” according to a Google press release.

The YouTube TV app is an important platform for advertisers, according to Google. Daily watch time on the app tops 250 million hours per day. Plus, Google says that people remember seeing ads on the TV app slightly more than they do on regular TV. Still, it’s hard to ignore just how big the masthead looks on a TV, and it’s one that frequent app users might be annoyed by.

People have noticed another small change that YouTube is making to its TV services: it will no longer allow people to access the TV interface from YouTube.com/tv (although the audience of people who used a browser extension to stream to their TVs, often on earlier smart TVs, may not be as big as the group of people using dedicated YouTube TV apps).

The beta rollout of the masthead begins today.