Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET
At a time when major streaming services are announcing more and more ads, two more are following suit — and they’re using AI.
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Two major media companies, Netflix and YouTube, announced plans this week to utilize new ad formats to keep users engaged, and both are using AI.
Netflix is ‘marrying’ ads with shows
Netflix’s announcement came during its annual Upfront event for advertisers. Through a new in-house advertising platform, Netflix Ads Suite, the company is adding several creative ad formats.
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Among them is an interactive ad format that uses generative AI to “instantly marry advertisers’ ads with the worlds of our shows.”
From Netflix’s description, it seems like these ads will blend into whatever show you’re watching to feel less intrusive (but hopefully they appear different enough that it’s clear it’s an ad). These ads will be both midroll and on the pause screen, and will have custom overlays, second screen buttons, and more. The format will be available to advertisers by 2026.
YouTube
YouTube’s ‘Peak Points’ format
YouTube’s announcement came during 2025 Brandcast, its annual event for advertisers. With the “Peak Points” format, marketers can specifically target the most impactful moment in a video (or when the most eyeballs are watching) to place an ad. While the ads themselves aren’t created with AI, YouTube says it will use Gemini to find the most emotional point that hopefully leads to more engagement and more click-throughs.
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The streaming video site rolled out pause ads last fall.
In an explanation to AndroidPolice, YouTube said that the timing for Peak Points ads is “carefully considered” to be close enough to the main point that it’s still relevant, but not so close that it’s disruptive. Mostly, the company explained, this is after the moment ends. The goal is to have a “thoughtful pause” ad break rather than an intrusion.
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