The Impact of YouTube advertising clutter on the viewers’ attitude towards YouTube channels owned by mainstream television channels

Abstract

The impact of exposure to advertising clutter while watching television programs on offline media and the subsequent attitude generation of viewers towards offline media have been discussed extensively in marketing. However, surprisingly, the impact of advertising clutter on online media and the viewers' attitude towards online media have been examined only to a limited extent in marketing. Most importantly, the impact of advertising clutter on YouTube, which now has the fiercest competition for the online media that broadcasts television programs, does not seem to have sparked any discussion in recent times. Accordingly, the discussion on viewers' attitude towards YouTube TV channels with advertising clutter has also been marginalized. This study investigated the impact of YouTube advertising clutter on viewers' attitude towards YouTube channels owned by mainstream television channels. A cross-sectional survey was employed, utilizing 305 YouTube viewers. The analysis, which used regression analysis, indicated that the perceived advertising clutter has no significant direct effect on viewers' attitude towards the YouTube TV channel. However, it was found that the perceived YouTube advertising clutter significantly impacts viewer irritation which, in turn, leads to a negative attitude towards the YouTube TV channel, even though this negative effect is minor. Results related to the impact of additional mobile data cost incurred by YouTube advertising clutter were counterintuitive, and this could be due to measurement error. The moderator impact of the skippable or non-skippable nature of YouTube advertisements on the relationship between perceived YouTube advertising clutter and irritation was insignificant.