Google-owned video giant YouTube is experimenting with a new mid-roll advertising format that aims to be less disruptive for live-streaming viewers. YouTube is testing the new format, which positions ads alongside a live stream using a picture-in-picture feature. Currently, the ad breaks occupy the full screen, cutting abruptly from the content in progress, which can be disruptive. With the new format viewers can keep their eyes on live content during the ad break. YouTube’s mid-roll PiP ad tests are part of its fight against ad blockers, use of which has seen some viewers cut off from the platform.

“Some viewers on select devices will begin to see the new ad format in the coming months, allowing creators to run ads without disrupting the live stream,” Google explains in a YouTube thread.

Creators can implement the new ad format as part of their monetization settings, and can choose it as the future default for future live streams, Android Authority points out, citing a YouTube support page that indicates “monetized channels without rights management can set mid-roll ad defaults for future live streams at the channel level,” while “channel level settings let you choose monetization settings that will be the default for any newly created live streams.”

Channel level settings can be adjusted by opening the Live Control Room and then clicking Settings in the bottom-left corner.

Additionally, “creators will be able to see the breakout of their ad revenue from live streams and live replays on their analytics page,” Android Authority reports.

YouTube hasn’t specified whether it is the ad or the content programming that shrinks to the miniaturized PiP frame, notes Android Central (though one presumes it is the content, with the ad enjoying the larger screen real estate).

YouTube is deploying the PiP test “for a limited group of users” in an effort to see if it “might alleviate the headache surrounding its recent ad war,” Android Authority writes, describing the streamer’s battle moves as “cracking down on users packing an ad-blocker by cutting off the video stream if the website detects the add-on.”

Those who wanted to regain access to the interrupted content “could whitelist YouTube or disable the ad-blocker altogether,” Android Authority adds, noting that “the company gave ad-block users ‘three strikes’ before they were banned from watching videos.”

“While this test seems to suggest YouTube understands how disruptive its ads are,” Android Central agrees that helping to “dissuade viewers from enabling ad blockers on its site” could be another motivation.