Streamers take a pause to serve ads; will brands play along?

Earlier this month, YouTube, in its Brandcast India event, announced that it is enabling brands to place themselves onto content when the user pauses the video. It is the latest among video streaming platforms to offer this ad format.

In June, Disney+ Hotstar introduced ‘Pause Ads’, becoming the first platform in the country to implement this format. In July, Manish Kalra, chief business officer, ZEE5, told afaqs! that the platform will soon be launching pause ads on its platform. 

A pause ad is an advertisement that appears when a user has paused or temporarily halted the content. A brand's message can be integrated into the viewing experience without interrupting it, as these ads appear as banners beside the paused video.

What are pause ads?

Pause ads can reach their audience without interrupting their content viewing experience and since it’s innovative it helps break through the clutter.

On Disney+ Hotstar, Marico, Mondelez, and ITC were among the early adopters. This approach also offers a creative element, allowing for different creatives tied to the pause moment. For example, Savlon’s ad says, “Germs don’t take a pause. Wash your hands.” Similarly, Saffola’s ad says, “Hit pause on junk, hit play on health!”

Jay Ganesan, senior vice president, APAC, Amagi, says, pause ads work best when they include a specific call to action. Since the screen remains visible during the pause, you can incorporate elements like QR codes that encourage engagement, such as signing up for something or redeeming a voucher. 

“This format is ideal for campaigns focused on driving a particular consumer action, rather than simply conveying information,” he says.

Amagi creates the technology to allow pause ads on different OTT platforms. However, it's not its primary focus.

Pause ads are a guaranteed engagement—once the content is paused, the ad runs until the viewer unpauses, leading to higher engagement. However, pause ads are more suitable for certain genres, like on-demand content, rather than live sports, where they don’t fit well. 

Manik Bambha, co-founder and president, Viewlift, a digital content distribution platform that helps monetise content through OTT apps, finds this format to be more appealing to brands focused on click-throughs and direct conversions. For brands focused on broad awareness, this format isn’t as attractive. 

“The advanced functionality of these ads drives up CPMs, which isn’t valuable for brands that prioritise reach over immediate engagement. If this format becomes more common and CPMs rise, brands focused on pure branding might struggle, as they prefer lower CPMs with broader exposure, even if viewers only watch for five or seven seconds. However, it’s still early. The effectiveness of this format for branding-focused advertisers remains uncertain,” he adds.

For platforms, it is not expected to drive significantly higher ad revenue. The main advantage lies in its appeal to premium subscribers. Ganesan says the benefit of pause ads is that they're triggered by the user, not the platform, making them feel less intrusive. So, it's less about monetisation and more about offering a more acceptable form of advertising for premium subscribers compared to traditional video ads.

“When you're paying for a premium SVoD subscription, there's a limit to how many traditional ads—like mid-rolls—you can tolerate before it becomes frustrating. This threshold varies by person; some may accept three ads per hour, while others find even one too much. In the premium segment, where users expect fewer disruptions, pause ads make more sense because they occur due to a user-initiated action, not a platform-imposed interruption,” he says.

Chandrahas Shetty, lead, demand facilitation, Magnite India, says, brands can leverage pause ads as an additional avenue to reach engaged audiences in a non-intrusive way, using contextually relevant content that aligns with what the viewer is watching. Meanwhile, for publishers, pause ads can unlock a new revenue stream and offer an opportunity to enhance the viewer experience. 

“The effectiveness of this type of ad format hinges on the ability to maintain contextual relevance for the user, which requires an ad server that can efficiently manage and execute ad delivery seamlessly,” he says.

Price factor

In an interview with afaqs!, Dhruv Dhawan, head of ads, Disney+ Hotstar, said that the ad rates for pause ads are marginally higher as it is considered a premium placement. The platform shows these ads to the SVoD audience on CTV across all plans, except for the ad-free plan priced at Rs 1,499.

The cost per mille (CPMs) for this format are also higher because one only pays when people truly engage. 

However, Bambha says that the eCPM (effective CPM) is still relatively low, as one is paying for fewer engaged viewers—only those who interact with the ad. For example, if your ad targets 1,000 people but only 50 engage, the payment is only for those interactions.

“It's early days for this format in India, so it's hard to gauge the eCPM accurately. Brands will experiment with this approach to see if it’s effective. Platforms will also test its viability before deciding whether to continue supporting it,” he adds.

Rajiv Dubey, head media, Dabur India, says, pricing for Pause Ads needs to be stabilised before brands can begin experimenting with this feature.

Why more OTT platforms are offering this ad format now?

Ganesan says that the primary reason is the increasing penetration of connected TVs (CTV). By the end of this year, there are expected to be about 50 million CTV households. As CTV viewership grows, pause ads are becoming more relevant and a key focus area for these platforms.

“While the current share of CTV viewing for these platforms is small, it's growing rapidly. This shift changes the viewing experience—when you're watching on a 50-inch screen in your living room, you're more likely to pause the content to answer a call or the door. That pause becomes valuable ad inventory because the ad remains visible to everyone in the room,” he says. 

However, when someone pauses content on their phones, they’re often not even looking at the screen anymore—they're likely off the app doing something else. Connected TV viewing is growing as a percentage of overall viewership, but in India, the majority of OTT viewing still occurs on smaller screens, which impacts how effective ad formats can be.

Ganesan says the rise of pause ads is part of a broader shift as digital viewership surpasses traditional broadcast for major events, including news. As more content is created specifically for digital platforms, we will see more innovative ad formats emerge, tailored to different devices and aspect ratios. 

“This trend will likely continue, with new formats focused on user engagement and calls to action, as they tend to be less intrusive. In markets like India, where many platforms are adopting a freemium model, ad revenue remains crucial, even for subscription-based services, like Netflix, which rely on ads to supplement their income,” he adds.

Bambha says that the current trend is not being driven by OTT platforms but by marketers who are demanding formats that ensure their money is spent effectively.

“The technology has always existed, but brands are now insisting on specific formats before they spend money. This trend is similar to the introduction of skip ads. OTT platforms never wanted skip ads—they preferred to get paid regardless of whether ads were watched or not. But brands, realising that viewers often skip or ignore ads, pushed for the introduction of skip ads about ten years ago, saying they’d only pay if the option to skip was available. This trend continues today, with brands dictating the terms, not OTT platforms,” he adds.

Bambha says that the format is piquing interest in Asia and especially India- many OTT platforms have initiated discussions with Viewlift about it. 

“In Asia, there's strong demand for these ad formats, and platforms like Google and Freeview already support them, so the technology isn't a major hurdle. The challenge lies in the sales process—how to sell, charge for, and report on these ads. This requires training the ad sales teams at OTT platforms to effectively leverage these formats. From a technology standpoint, it’s not a big deal,” Bambha says.

This format has been well-tested and proven effective in Europe. However, North America is slower to embrace it. 

“In North America, demand outpaces supply, so brands aren't as eager to adopt these new formats just yet,” he says.