YouTube begins showing ads in video player

This is incredibly annoying. I haven't seen anyone mention this in blogs or news media, but YouTube has begun showing ads within the video player.

I noticed this on YouTube tonight. What happens is, as you begin to watch your video, the bottom portion of the video is obscured by animated advertisements. That's right, these ads play in the flash video player as your video is playing! So far I've seen ads for the movie AVPR (what is that, a sequel to Alien vs. Predator, widely regarded as one of the worst movies ever?), one for the much better movie Juno, and one for a cellphone company or something along those lines.

An episode of “What the Buck” is obscured by an animated advertisement for Juno.

Honestly, these ads are incredibly annoying. I can't get over the fact they obscure the video!

The ads can be dismissed by mousing over the small “x” button that accompanies them, but I still found my self rewinding to see what I missed.

My prediction is these ads will go away quickly and quietly, or else become famous and widely hated by users.

Update: It appears these ads were tested back in August 2007, but only recently have become extremely common.

Thoughts?