YouTube is testing out a new pre-roll ad setup across the site that looks a lot like the current Hulu offerings. The new ad displays before the video starts, where a pre-roll ad would normally begin playing and offers the viewer to pick their poison. The ads offer the ability to view a longer ad up front or shorter ‘commercial breaks’ during the video. The longer ads we’ve seen range from 2 minutes to 30 seconds and are likely affected by the length of the video. You can check out this one (signed out) which is over thirty minutes, to see the new ad. If you don’t make any choice, the video will eventually play with whatever number of ‘commercial breaks’ are calculated for the length of the clip you’re trying to watch.
