Quibi will have pre-roll ads that you can’t skip on its videos
The worst part about using YouTube as a free service is the 5- or 15-second non-skippable ads that play before many videos — but at least using YouTube is free. Quibi’s ad-supported tier will also run non-skippable pre-roll ads at launch. But unlike YouTube, it’ll cost subscribers $4.99 a month.
Quibi, a shortform video streaming service, partnered with 10 companies for exclusive ads in the streamer’s first year, according to Axios: Progressive, Discover, General Mills, Procter & Gamble, AB InBev, Taco Bell, Pepsi, T-Mobile, Google, and Walmart. The partnership means a company like Google could run ads for YouTube, one of Quibi’s competitors. T-Mobile also partnered with Quibi to exclusively carry the streamer on its network, making it available to tens of millions of customers, much like it does with Netflix.
Those companies can run pre-roll ads in 6-, 10-, or 15-second increments before the episode of any show. Subscribers won’t be treated to any mid-roll ads, which are the commercials that appear halfway through a video.
Although advertisers have full control over how long their ads are, Quibi suggests that longer commercials be used for lengthier shorts. Fifteen-second ads should run on videos that appear between five and seven minutes or longer, according to Axios. Shorter ads should run on videos less than five minutes in length. Collectively, Quibi will run 2.5 minutes of advertising for every one hour of programming. That’s lower than the amount of ads that runs on traditional television.
Advertising is going to play a crucial role on Quibi. CEO Meg Whitman thinks most people will opt for the $4.99-a-month ad-supported streaming plan rather than the more expensive $7.99-a-month ad-free tier. Companies are encouraged to take full advantage of Quibi’s turnstile technology, which optimizes video to make transitioning from landscape to portrait seamless. It’s a core facet of Quibi’s sell to potential subscribers, and it’s clear the company wants advertisers to think of the function as native to the Quibi experience.
Quibi, which will have 50 titles on launch day, is available to start streaming on April 6th.
The worst part about using YouTube as a free service is the 5- or 15-second non-skippable ads that play before many videos — but at least using YouTube is free. Quibi’s ad-supported tier will also run non-skippable pre-roll ads at launch. But unlike YouTube, it’ll cost subscribers $4.99 a month.…
