- YouTube is introducing side-by-side mid-roll ads for livestreams on web and connected TVs, expanding monetization without fully interrupting the viewing experience.
- The livestream shrinks visually while the ad plays with its audio, muting the stream temporarily before returning to normal.
- Available for normal latency streams with “Let YouTube Decide” mid-rolls turned on.
- The format supports YouTube’s larger push into livestreaming, following recent tools like Jewels and break scheduling.
- With over 163M livestream viewers in the U.S. alone, YouTube is aligning its monetization strategies to capitalize on the live content boom.
- While audio disruption remains, the format introduces more flexibility for advertisers and revenue opportunities for creators.
YouTube is ramping up its efforts to make livestreaming more lucrative for creators, without compromising too much on viewer experience. The platform has officially rolled out side-by-side mid-roll ads during their weekly Creator Insider series, a new format designed to monetize livestreams by displaying advertisements alongside ongoing broadcasts on connected TVs (CTV) and the web.
This update represents yet another strategic move by YouTube to deepen its commitment to live content, which continues to see significant growth in both creator adoption and viewer engagement.
Here's everything you need to know about how these new ads work, why they matter, and what they signal for the future of livestream monetization.
A New Ad Experience: How Side-by-Side Ads Work
At the heart of the new format is a simple but impactful change: ads will now run within the livestream player, without fully interrupting the viewing session. Instead of cutting away from the content, the video shrinks and shifts to one side, while the ad plays in a newly opened frame beside it.
According to YouTube, the livestream’s audio is temporarily muted, allowing the ad’s audio to take over. Once the ad finishes—or is skipped—the stream expands back to its original size and the audio resumes seamlessly.
This feature is available only for livestreams broadcast in normal latency mode and requires creators to have the "Let YouTube Decide" mid-roll setting enabled. While it doesn't entirely preserve an uninterrupted experience—since audio is paused—it does offer a visually continuous experience, keeping viewers tethered to the live event without cutting away entirely.
Why YouTube Is Doubling Down on Livestreams
Livestreaming isn’t just a trend—it’s a major component of how platforms are evolving to meet real-time user demand. In 2023, over 163 million people in the U.S. watched influencer livestreams, and TikTok reported that more than 100 million of its creators went live in 2024. The appeal is clear: livestreams offer immediacy, intimacy, and opportunities for real-time interaction and commerce.
YouTube’s push into live content has been visible through a series of new features in recent months:
- Jewels, a monetization tool allowing viewers to buy digital stickers during streams
- Scheduled breaks for streamers, offering a more professional broadcast experience
- A broader emphasis on surfacing live content more prominently across the platform
The introduction of side-by-side ads fits squarely within this ecosystem, offering new revenue potential without disrupting the core of what makes live content engaging: presence and continuity.
The Trade-Off: Monetization vs. Viewer Experience
YouTube’s balancing act is clear—maximize monetization without alienating viewers. Side-by-side ads are a calculated compromise. While they mute the stream temporarily, the visual experience remains intact, and the viewer isn't bounced out of the broadcast.
This format also caters well to CTV environments, where viewers are generally more passive and less likely to click away. For advertisers, it presents a fresh opportunity to tap into captive audiences who are already tuned in for real-time engagement.
Yet it’s not without friction. Some viewers may still find the loss of audio jarring, especially during high-stakes moments in a stream. YouTube is betting, however, that the benefits to creators—and the increased flexibility for advertisers—will outweigh this temporary disruption.
What It Means for Creators and Advertisers
For creators, the message is clear: livestreaming just became a more attractive revenue channel. By enabling automated mid-roll monetization through a format that keeps viewers engaged, YouTube is incentivizing creators to go live more often—and to do so strategically.
For advertisers, this adds a new, immersive ad slot to YouTube’s growing inventory. Live content tends to draw highly engaged audiences, making it ideal for both brand awareness campaigns and potentially social commerce integrations.
Importantly, the side-by-side format is still in its early rollout and is currently limited to normal latency livestreams on CTV and web. Mobile users and ultra-low latency streamers are, for now, excluded from this ad type.
Livestreaming Just Got More Lucrative
YouTube’s launch of side-by-side ads marks a pivotal shift in how livestream content can be monetized at scale. By integrating advertising more seamlessly into the livestreaming experience, the platform is signaling a long-term investment in real-time content—and a growing confidence that viewers will tolerate minor disruptions in exchange for rich, dynamic broadcasts.
The livestreaming race is heating up, and YouTube is making it clear: creators who go live won’t just connect with their audiences—they’ll get paid for it too.
