YouTube to get in-stream ads, like Hulu

Advertisements will soon make their way into YouTube videos, two non-Google sources familiar with the site’s plans said.

ClickZ reports that YouTube will get a major facelift on April 16. Tabs for Movies, Music, Shows and Videos will replace the current layout of Home, Videos, Channels and Community. The videos section will remain home to user-generated content while the other tabs will host premium content from Google’s network and studio partners. The premium content will host in-stream advertisements, one advertising agency executive said.

The online video site — by far the most popular on the Internet — will also come to resemble Hulu, with a light-dimming feature that reduces brightness around the video frame and hash marks that show when the next ads will appear. The executive said it’s "totally a Hulu approach, but that’s best practices right now."

According to another source, the ad scheme will differ slightly in that Google doesn’t plan to sell entire episodes to one advertiser. That means the Hulu practice of showing the same ad repeatedly probably won’t happen on YouTube.

While all of this movement suggests that fresh content is on the way, ClickZ says nothing specific has been revealed. For now, YouTube’s premium content includes dated television shows such as "MacGyver" and "Star Trek." Hopefully that will change, because a redesign with little more than intrusive ads to show for it wil be a disappointment.