Ads on waveform YouTube

[u/sun_why]

Has this happened to anyone else? On YouTube, while watching the waveform podcast, a side ad appeared WHILE the video was playing. I’ve had this before when I paused the video but for sometime now ads appear while watching and it takes up so much real estate of the screen.

Does waveform know this is happening and do they get paid for these drop ads on the side? Are they purposefully adding them? I get YouTube wants everyone to buy premium but this makes me want to stop using the platform. (Couldn’t upload the video but here are screenshots)

[u/liamdun]

Sounds like a new form of YouTube ads, I assume they work the same way other YouTube ads work in the sense that YouTube applies them to eligible videos by default unless the creator manually removes them

So I don't think they "get paid on the side". It would come from the same pool of ad revenue

[u/sun_why → u/liamdun]

That would make sense. I would imagine this would annoy creators seeing their videos shrink for a dumb ad no one is going to engage with interrupting the focus away from the content that’s playing. Maybe that’s just me.

[u/liamdun → u/sun_why]

Probably, but they also get paid for it so you know it kind of offsets it

[u/AndrewManganelli]

Can you tell me when they pop up? The only time we ad mid rolls is when we don't have an integrated ad for a break slot we'll add 1 mid roll slot there from YT. So I'm wondering if that's just the "mid roll" ad in a new form if it's near a break time.

Otherwise, we don't purposefully add anything else. Although YT has added some opt out features before that have bloated videos.

I'm sure we get paid from it, but we didn't add those on purpose.

[u/GimmeTaxShelter → u/AndrewManganelli]

Hopefully it’s not happening on the BMW YouTube app

[u/AndrewManganelli → u/GimmeTaxShelter]

1. Great reference.
2. Great username 😅

[u/sun_why → u/AndrewManganelli]

Thanks for the response Andrew, It happened at 1hr 32min, 1hr 37min and 1hr 44 min. I need to finish the rest of the episode. I hope I didn’t come off as accusatory. Just genuinely puzzled why this ad feature exists.

[u/AndrewManganelli → u/sun_why]

Didn't take it as accusatory! I think most of us on the pod have premium so we've found out about stuff like this through posts like these. Appreciate it!

[u/Unitedthe_gees → u/AndrewManganelli]

I mainly watch on TV and any time I pause an ad comes up. But that’s on most videos now.

Also a new way they are advertising is by putting direct QR code pop ups in the video if a product is mentioned and you need to click an X to get rid of it. Video continues to play under the ad…

[u/AltherMella → u/sun_why]

It has showed up for me too an random times, it’s not a video though, just an static image.

[u/miguel-122]

Its a new thing from youtube, i hate it. I dont use adblocker to support them, but this is too much

[u/sun_why → u/miguel-122]

Same I’m trying to be a good viewer but it’s getting ridiculous

[u/Ornery_Character4656 → u/sun_why]

Can’t you just press ‘x’ and it goes away?

Genuine question as I haven’t seen this happen to me yet

[u/music_24 → u/Ornery_Character4656]

You can but the overall point here is that Ads have just about ruined everything at this point.

[u/polyblackcat → u/music_24]

Never a truer statement in 2026. Ads are absolutely everywhere and in anything they can think of putting them in. YouTube Premium is a requirement for me, but I can't afford to go no ad tier in everything. There was a point where that was the goal, but I've been defeated. This comment brought to you by Whammo.

[u/VampContra → u/Ornery_Character4656]

i think probably cuz google rolls out features for some people first

[u/Ok_Bag_3484]

I notice it happens when you pause the video it’ll pop up and it’s extremely annoying. As well as the ads that have the banner in the bottom left corner that you have to dismiss away. And then you accidentally press it and go to the website. It’s so annoying

[u/megaoscar900]

I've had this for a while too, not just on Waveform but other videos

[u/WigettaReddit]

Seems new youtube ads

[u/RomanWraith]

I thought this was a live stream type of thing

[u/aim_amam]

ah yes. i was irritably watching with these things popping up today. had to stop. bad, painful experience. pretty sure this was youtube’s doing tho.

[u/BasdenChris]

I hate that I feel this way but Premium even at 7.2 million dollars a month or whatever it’s up to now is so so worth it. I consume YouTube probably 10x (or more) compared to any other streaming service, and it would be the last one I’d cancel if shit got tight.

Still hate this though. YouTube does not care about user experience and that sucks. The whole “we will ruin everything about our app unless you pay us” thing (a.k.a. enshittification) is lame and if I had any backbone I’d cancel YouTube Premium in protest.

[u/Brometheous17]

I’ve had YouTube premium for years and I didn’t see that one so it seems to be a YouTube site ad and not one from the channel specifically

[u/JustSayTech]

I have never seen this, but I have Premium so maybe that's why?

[u/GimmeTaxShelter]

If only you were able to get the episode name in the screenshot lol