YouTube swears those 90-second non-skippable ads aren’t intentional

YouTube is funded primarily by advertising, so Google’s incentivized to strike a balance between the ad strategy that generates the most profit possible and one that users won’t find too obtrusive. Reports this week that users had been seeing non-skippable, 90-second-long ads on YouTube’s TV app seemed to show that the company was struggling to thread that needle — but now, Google says these super-long ads aren’t intentional.

Early this month, multiple users reported that YouTube’s TV app was showing them longer non-skippable ads than the service’s ad format rules allow for (YouTube ads can get quite long, but those that can’t be skipped are officially capped at 30 seconds). Today, the TeamYouTube account on X acknowledged the reports, saying that the behavior isn’t intentional and that YouTube is looking into the offending ads.

The tweet not only clarifies that YouTube isn’t meant to serve ads in this way, but also says that the 90-second non-skippable block “isn’t something we are testing right now.” Taken at face value, YouTube’s statements here make the longer ads seem accidental.

It’s worth noting that YouTube’s been known to show users non-skippable ads that go well over the streamer’s stated 30-second limit. In a 2025 Android Authority poll, about 87% of more than 8,600 respondents indicated that YouTube served them non-skippable ads longer than 30 seconds, with nearly a third of participants saying they’d seen non-skippable ads go on for longer than two minutes.

It’s unclear how so many users are experiencing ads that apparently violate YouTube’s terms; with any luck, the platform’s purported investigation into these latest rule-breaking ads will get it sorted out.

Do you watch YouTube with ads? Have you ever encountered a single, non-skippable ad that stretched longer than 30 seconds? Let us know in the comments.