I think if done correctly, Youtube ads can be done in a way that isn't so annoying. They have to make the ad length somewhat proportional to the video length. A 30 second ad for a 2 minute movie is going to be too long. Maybe a 10 second ad would work better for something like that. Maybe no ads at all unless the video is more than five minutes long.
I forgot who is doing it, but I heard on a podcast that some online video service is running ads but making them skippable. It sounds pointless, because you'd think everyone would just skip them but that's not necessarily true. Some ads when done right can actually get the message across in a really short amount of time. So short a time, in fact, that by the time someone decides to move the mouse to the skip button, the ad is almost over and they decide it's not really worth it.
Whatever video service this is has an agreement with the advertisers that they don't have to pay for videos that are skipped. Only for videos that are watched. Therefore if the ad is annoying, then the video gets skipped, viewers aren't bothered too much, the advertiser doesn't have to pay (and learns next time to make a better ad), and the video service gets some demographic and statistical data about what kind of ads work and what don't work. If the ad is watched, presumably the viewer wasn't annoyed enough to skip, the video service gets paid (and gets useful data about an ad that works), and the advertiser gets an ad impression.
Pretty much win win if done creatively and correctly.
