For those of you who have been keeping score, I initially had a post back a couple of years ago complaining about YouTube ads that were 3 or even 8 minutes long. Then I was hit with a 17-minute ad and had to post about that. Then I was served one that was 28 minutes long and only a few days later 31- and 40-minute ads dropped in.
Well, yesterday I was watching a documentary on Frank Lloyd Wright that was 59 minutes long and about ten minutes from the end I was interrupted by an “ad” (“alternative programming” might be a better way of putting it) that apparently would have run 1:15:48 if I’d let the whole thing play. I honestly thought I’d clicked on the “play next video” link by accident. Of course I hit the skip button after the obligatory six seconds so I never even figured out what this ad was for. They were just starting to run the opening credits and music!
Wow. An hour and fifteen minutes. And again I ask: what’s the point? Verily, verily I say unto you that ain’t nobody got time for that. Something has gone haywire.
Anyway, I’ll just keep tracking these things as the enshittification process continues apace. Though I have to think an hour and fifteen minutes will be hard to beat.
Alex Good 
Have been having a noodle on the net, as far as I can gather, ‘creators’ can now label their content as an ad ( not sure how it works but that’s the gist of it) and make them as long as they like. It also depends on whether you watch YouTube on the TV or Ona phone or PC, as to whether you get them. it’s quite confusing. Someone put up a screenshot of a 9 hour ad they got! So long as you get the 6 second ‘skip’ it shouldn’t matter much but they’re starting to do ‘no skip’ short ads that are getting longer, so be prepared! Are you watching it on a computer? If so the Brave browser allows you to watch YouTube ad free and Im not sure how that works but it does according to some users.
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Yeah, I watch it on a computer. I know there are programs out there that will kill some ads (not embedded ones, like when a host is reading plugs) but it usually doesn’t matter to me as I’m around close enough to hit the skip button. Usually. And the short no-skip ads I can live with for now. As long as they’re around ten seconds and there aren’t too many of them.
The 9 hour ad suggests I have a ways to go yet! I would have to screenshot that. But I wonder what the point of even making something like that is. That’s not an ad or an infomercial but an entire telethon. Nobody’s going to watch any part of that. It’s advertisement as trolling, which I would have thought was counterproductive. But given the times we live in ….
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Yep. It annoys me that I pay for Amazon Prime (I know, I’m ashamed) and they introduced renting new movies, and even some old ones, (which really piddles me off) which wasn’t the case when I subscribed. It was all free and advert free, but greed wins out every time. 🙄.
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Remember when cable first rolled out in the 1980s and was called “Pay TV”? That sounded so weird because everyone knew TV was free (at least it was over here). But the selling point was there were NO ADS. That didn’t last long.
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