That’s the pitch for SkipIt, a new service from video ad company SpotXchange. The idea: Users set up an account, and when they play videos on sites that use the service, they can pay 10 cents a pop to skip over the ads.

Meanwhile, SpotXchange tells Web publishers it will pay them more than they would have received from the video advertisers if the pre-roll had played. And it says it will end up increasing the value of the rest of the publishers’ video ads, since users will only see the stuff they really like.

All of that sound unwieldy and unlikely to you? I think so, too.

Hard to imagine consumers pulling out their credit cards in order to skip a pre-roll. And while SpotXchange imagines that there will be lots of ways for users to earn SkipIt credits without actually spending their own money — another advertiser could give out freebies for watching one of their ads, etc. — simply registering for an ad-skipping service seems like an awful lot of work. After all, you could just look away.

In any case, this is likely going to be theoretical for lots of Web surfers. SkipIt is launching today on just a handful of sites, none of which are owned by big publishers. But SpotXchange says it has a deal in place with magazine publisher Meredith, so you should start seeing it on sites like Better Recipes soon.

And SpotXchange CEO Michael Shehan, who concedes that this is a work in progress, insists that there has to be an audience for some version of what he’s offering. “There’s a segment of people who will do a lot of work to not watch ads,” he says.

At the very least, SkipIt seems like another acknowledgment that most pre-rolls are clumsy and unpopular. YouTube and Hulu already let users skip lots of their pre-rolls with a single, free click, which they say increases the value of the ads you choose to watch. And last month we told you about Solve Media’s answer to the problem, which involves typing in a brand message in order to skip the ad.

Here’s a video from SkipIt that explains the service. You’ll note that there’s no ad before the ad:

[Shutterstock/Tom Sebourn]

Enter “First Watch” ads, a new pitch from the video site: It offers to run a pre-roll ad in front of a visitor’s first YouTube video of the day, depending on the kind of video they’re watching.

This will only work for videos submitted by YouTube “partners,” so you won’t see the ad if you’re watching your pal’s dog on a skateboard.

But Google has no problem finding inventory from vetted sources. It tells the New York Times it has been exposing 15 million viewers a day to First Watch ads during a testing period, compared to 50 million views of auto-playing ads on YouTube’s home page.

This is pretty straightforward stuff. But it does serve to remind us that:

• Google continues to figure out how to extract more revenue out of YouTube, which may or may not be profitable. Also along those lines, note its hire of P&G exec Lucas Watson to run sales for the site.
• Part of YouTube’s evolution involves playing around with ad formats it used to ignore, like pre-rolls. Just a couple years ago, the site was primarily interested in “overlay” ads that run during the clip itself, at the bottom of the screen. But now pre-rolls are quite common; you may have also noticed Hulu-like options that let you pick the kind of ad you want to see, or even skip them altogether.

If you work somewhere where you can’t watch videos with copious cursing, then this video will not be safe for work. But it is excellent, and it is about advertising:

That’s changing starting today, as the company begins to stick “pre-roll” ads in front of several thousand of its clips, including a new set of music videos that hasn’t been available for YouTube mobile until now.

YouTube will start running videos from Vevo, the “Hulu for Music” joint venture that it works with. And it will run ads with those clips, as well as a few thousand other clips, primarily from its network of semi-pro “partners.”

The caveats: The music clips will run only on Google’s Android handsets, and not on Apple’s iPhone or any other competitors’ phones. And the clips will be limited to whatever Vevo has available in its catalog. Which means, most notably, that Google won’t be able to show clips from Warner Music Group, since the company still hasn’t come to terms with Vevo.

That doesn’t mean iPhone users have to go without music videos, of course: There’s a Vevo iPhone app, if you’re so inclined, and there’s plenty of other ways to get music videos on your phone if you want or need to. It’s just that Google won’t make any money when you watch them.

The big picture is that YouTube says it is now generating 200 million video views a day from mobile devices (that number includes both phones and tablets like the iPad), up 3x from last year. And now it wants start turning those views into dollars, or at least pennies.

Worth noting that while YouTube has been most aggressive about putting “overlay” ads on the clips it runs on the Web, it’s not doing so here.

That makes sense, because the format would be particularly annoying on a small screen, where the real estate it eats up would be even more noticeable. And because the point of overlay ads is to get a user to click on them, which opens up a new site. That works fine on the Web, but, again, it seems like a very tough sell on a handset.

What exactly did Adconion buy? Some of Joost’s technology, as well as its trademark, and about a dozen of the company’s remaining 25 employees, a spokeswoman says.

So what does that leave? Does any part of the original Joost survive as an operating company? “I believe so,” says the spokeswoman, who is going to get back to us about that.

Price? Your guess is as good as mine. But I’m guessing it’s not going to be very much, and nothing close to what investors like Sequoia, Index and Viacom (VIA) were hoping when they plowed $45 million into the company more than two years ago. Index, by the way, is also an investor in Adconion and led an $80 million C funding round in February 2008.

In any case, this is all a matter of “i” dotting and “t” crossing, as Joost has officially been in hospice mode since June, when the company laid off most of its employees and replaced CEO Mike Volpi. Prior to that, Volpi and his investors had been trying to broker a sale of the company, hoping that they could convince a big infrastructure player like Comcast (CMCSA) or Time Warner Cable (TWC) to bail it out.

No dice, though Time Warner Cable did end up hiring some technical help from Joost.

ADCONION MEDIA GROUP ACQUIRES JOOST ASSETS

New Capabilities Provide Advertisers, Content Owners and Publishers with an End-to-End
Cross-Channel Video Solution

SANTA MONICA, CALIF. – NOVEMBER 24, 2009 — Adconion Media Group (www.adconion.com), the largest independent global audience and content network, announced today that it has acquired certain assets from privately-held Joost, the online video service. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Video is a top priority for our company, and through the acquisition of the Joost assets we will be able to provide advertisers, content owners and website publishers with an end-to-end global video platform and cross-channel video and display ad-serving solution,” said Tyler Moebius, CEO, Adconion Media Group. “This acquisition immediately brings additional scale and content to the Adconion video pre-roll network for clients who are looking for a safe, cost-effective alternative to achieve the maximum value of online video advertising. We’ll also continue to operate Joost.com, providing clients with a destination site to showcase and distribute their branded entertainment content.”

In June, Joost announced a change in its business strategy to focus on providing white-label video platforms, and Adconion plans to pursue this strategy. On Friday, Adconion announced its first long-term licensing partnership as the exclusive display and video ad-serving solution for the Goldbach Media Group in Europe.

The acquisition of Joost assets adds many dimensions to Adconion’s existing video services and further will solidify its position in the online video and content syndication market. Prior to the acquisition, Adconion offered targeted distribution of content, including video and television commercials, to audiences around the world via Adconion.TV; as well as customized branded entertainment solutions for clients through its exclusive relationship with the digital studio RedLever. Through the Joost acquisition, Adconion.TV will add to its library of professionally-produced video content available for targeted pre-roll advertisements across 2,000 premium publishers.

Janus Friis, co-founder of Joost, said, “Over the past few months we have been actively exploring strategic options for Joost, and have concluded that the sale of certain of its assets to Adconion is in the best interests of Joost. Adconion has a strong technological platform and a compelling business model, and we believe that both businesses will benefit as a result of this acquisition.”

A leader in advertising innovation, targeting and distribution, Adconion reaches nearly 300 million unique users on a monthly basis. Prior to the Joost acquisition, Adconion was serving more than 80 million video streams per day to targeted audiences across 2,000 global websites.

The world’s biggest video site is trying a “small test” of optional “pre-roll” ads that run at the beginning of its clips. Click on “skip this ad” when the ad starts running and…well, you can guess what happens.

Unlike ad-skipping options offered by other sites, there’s no trade-off with the user here. You simply don’t have to watch the clip.

Given that most online advertising now seems headed in the “big, bigger BIGGEST” direction–come-ons that insist on getting in your face no matter how hard you try to avoid them–this is a pleasant change of pace.

And a smart one, at least theoretically, given that YouTube should be able to charge more for ads users don’t avoid. Just as important, the video site can collect more refined data about the performance of different ads.

I’m okay with preroll ads myself, if they’re short enough and it’s stuff I want to see. And I certainly prefer them to “overlay” ads, which clutter up the bottom of my clip with ugly text that’s a pain to make disappear. But Google (GOOG) and YouTube officials insist I’m in the minority on this one, and that the rest of you guys love them. True?

No ad at all on this one, which I’m only catching up to just now:

Turns out he’s figured out how to do it: By going back to work for CBS.

The broadcaster, which canned Carolla from his radio job earlier in the year, is now going to sponsor his podcast. It will promote the show, handle ad sales and let Carolla program his own Web radio station.

The press release announcing the deal describes it as a “partnership.” I’m trying to figure out if that means Carolla will become an employee again or if it’s a real partnership, whereby, say, he retains ownership of his show and shares revenue with CBS (CBS).

I’m guessing it’s the former, since selling ads for podcasts still requires a lot of work and not that much return. It’s much easier for CBS to sell ads against a local radio station with an audience of a million or more than for Carolla’s show, which reaches an average of 130,000 people at a time.

Still, Carolla’s show is frequently in Apple (AAPL) iTunes’s Top 10 podcast list, and someday, someone will figure out how to take advantage of its (relatively) small but dedicated audience. And the show already has one sponsor–Carolla has started doing a “live read” for Adam & Eve Stores, the “the nation’s number one source for all things erotic.”

Here’s an interview I conducted with Carolla in March, where he explains his not-entirely voluntary move to the Web and his attempts to turn it into a money-making venture.