YouTube: are there more adverts on YouTube or live TV? How ad breaks compare

• YouTube has billions of users each month. 
• If you don’t have an ad-blocker, you might run into numerous advert breaks while watching a video. 
• But how does it compare to watch terrestrial TV live? 

In the age of streaming and internet content, it might have been a while since you actually watched terrestrial TV. 

One of the most popular ways to entertain yourself in the year 2024 is by watching videos on YouTube. According to Global Media Insight, the platform has over 2.7 billion users each month - which is a jaw-dropping number. 

If you are among the billions who watch YouTube each month, whether it is just the odd video once in a while or if it is your main form of entertainment - you might have found yourself getting annoyed at the perceived amount of adverts that interrupt your viewing habits. In fact you might have even started to wonder whether you get more ads on YouTube than when watching live TV. 

Do all YouTube videos have adverts? 

Firstly, if you pay for YouTube Premium - the monthly subscription available - you won’t see adverts. But free users will have likely run into plenty of ads while using the video sharing platform. 

Forbes reported in 2020 that all videos would be showing adverts on YouTube, even if creators don’t want them. However some videos may not have ads before or during them if they do not qualify for monetization, for one reason or another. 

And finally if you have an ad blocker installed on your computer/ device, it may mean that you do not see adverts on YouTube - or other websites/ platforms. 

How many adverts do you get on YouTube?

So, in order to answer this question - I watched a range of YouTube videos around 20 minutes in length. I picked this because it is around the same length as a half-hour TV show. 

All of the videos I watched had advert breaks before the start of the video, usually up to two at a time. However they could be skipped after around 10 seconds or so. 

The YouTube videos would usually - but not always - have one or two more breaks for adverts during the run time. And if you didn’t hit stop on the video before it reached the end, it would go into another pair of adverts. 

However, like the advert before the start of the videos, they could usually be skipped after 10 to 15 seconds. Although, if you aren’t paying attention or doing chores at that moment, you could miss the opportunity to skip and end up watching both. 

If the adverts were not skippable, they usually lasted just a handful of seconds before the video resumed. Some of the videos also contained sponsored advert reads, which are part of the clip and can be fast forwarded through but not skipped in the same way as other adverts. 

Albeit some creators do have timer bars that appear on the screen, so you can see how long is left of the sponsor break. But that is not a standardised practice. 

Are there more adverts on TV or YouTube? 

To compare the frequency and length of advert breaks on YouTube, I switched on terrestrial TV and got out my timer (okay the stopwatch feature on my phone). I timed it perfectly to catch the start of an episode of Tipping Point Lucky Stars - the celebrity version of the early evening game show favourite. 

During the show, there were three advert breaks after 10 minutes, 21 minutes and 36 minutes approximately. The breaks ran from between 1 minute 45 to a whopping 3 minutes 55 - and of course you cannot skip the adverts. 

The obvious exception is if you have a TIVO box or Sky box that allows you to record programmes and then fast forward through the adverts. 

The episode of Tipping Point ran for just shy of an hour, which is longer than the YouTube videos I watched. However the frequency of advert breaks was far more regular on the online platform than on live TV - with just three during the 60-odd minutes of the ITV programme. 

But the advert breaks on TV were significantly longer than on YouTube - and you cannot skip them as easily. So while you are more likely to be interrupted by adverts, you can return to your video much quicker. 

Do you regularly watch videos on YouTube or other similar platforms? Share your experiences by emailing me: [email protected].