Yeah, it works just like TV. There are no unskippable ads or interstitials. Also with unlimited DVR and time-shifting, I rarely watch live, and I can skip all the commercials (albeit manually).
This isn't necessarily true. I don't have any behind the scenes knowledge, but I suspect that enough money or reputation can buy you unskippable ads. I've had several ads I have been unable to skip, running to as long as 15 seconds for the TV+ Tom Hanks movie from Apple. Almost every ad for a Google product has also been unskippable.
Could just be an extension of Google's anti-Apple UX design, but I would be rather surprised.
This probably depends on the client you are using - using Youtube in browser with adblockers, I have never seen an ad on Youtube, much less an unskippable one. So I take this is what the parent comment meant by "you can also skip the ads for free".
> Not all ads can be fully skipped, and skipping the ad takes at least a couple of seconds. You can also get multiple ads in a video.
You're not watching them right. All ads can be fully skipped, preemptively, at a time cost of zero. If you don't like the ads, just don't watch them. There's no reason to pay for YouTube Red.
Not watching them involves waiting a few seconds for the skip ad button to appear.
That time adds up to 30 to 60 min a month. Let's say 45 min a month in average. That means, saving 45 min of my spare time costs $12, the cost of YouTube Red.
45 min of my spare time is much more valuable than $12, so I just pay for it.
In YouTube TV you get to see unavoidable ads, unlike in TV where you can switch the channel while those ads are running.