YouTube TV’s ad-free ‘Zen’ breaks are becoming ads

One of the few breakaways users are able to get from ads during shows or movies on YouTube TV is the peaceful Zen Mode, which generally depicts a quiet and relaxing scene. Now, that feature is starting to incorporate sponsored text, effectively interrupting the zen.

Due to the nature of YouTube TV, there are often spaces in ad breaks during TV shows and movies. Because the service is essentially streaming cable, it can’t always insert commercials of its own perfectly. To fill that gap, YouTube TV makes use of its “zen mode,” which offers a peaceful scene with calming music to fill the gap. Generally, it appears after a user hits “skip ad” during a commercial break.

This beloved little space of peace and quiet is apparently becoming compromised, according to users on Reddit. During the playback of picturesque landscapes and calming music, some are now seeing a line of text appear across noting a new sponsor. In one specific instance, a “This break brought to you by Progressive” appeared for one user in bold branding across the scene.

There are a couple of trains of thought to this. One is that the zen mode is meant to be a nice little break in commercials for users watching some of their favorite shows on a service they already pay upwards of $70 for. By selling that ad space, you’re destroying what that small zen moment stands for.

The other train is that YouTube TV is, at the end of the day, a business that needs to sell ad space in whatever form it can to make money. It seems this was always the plan as having an unimpeded moment of peace meant no revenue for that 30 seconds or so. That little spot with a calming background scene is a perfect spot to slip in sponsored branding for a nice kickback.

In any case, it appears that TV will be TV and ads will come in any form. So far, it looks as though this is only appearing for a limited number of users and could be part of a testing phase for Google. Generally speaking, YouTube TV adding silent branding to zen breaks during channel playback means the service doesn’t have to raise prices further than it already has – yet.