YouTube clamps down on ad blockers

3 years ago 1

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YouTube has started testing a system that prevents users from watching videos with an ad blocker turned on, Android Police reports.

The publication spotted a post from Reddit user Sazk100 explaining how he was presented with a pop-up window titled “Ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube” when trying to do so.

To continue watching the video, he was given the option to either allow YouTube Ads through his ad blocker or to try YouTube Premium, the optional subscription that removes ads from the service for a fee.

In response to the post, a Reddit moderator said a YouTube employee had confirmed the platform was running an experiment on blocking ad blockers.

The screenshot below shows the pop-up window the Reddit user was presented with when trying to watch a YouTube video with their ad blocker switched on.

Google has a long history of clashing with ad blockers, including banning apps that enable the capability from its Play Store and making changes to its Chrome browser that could spell the end of ad-blocker plugins.

At the same time, it has increased the number of ads shown at the start of certain videos from one to two.

It also experimented with showing as many as ten unskippable ads in longer videos to some users.

YouTube primarily relies on advertising for revenue, although its Premium subscription revenue has increased in recent years.

These revenue streams are also critical to compensating creators, who draw viewers to the platform.

The Premium subscription was launched in 2014 in the US and came to South Africa in 2019. By 2022, YouTube Premium had raked in 80 million.

Google previously said it would invest more in the offering in 2023, which appears to include efforts to drive ad blocker users to the service.

In South Africa, YouTube users have the option of an individual membership for R71.99 per month, or a family plan with up to five Google accounts for R109.99 per month.

In addition to removing ads from the video service, users also get ad-free and offline listening on Google’s Spotify and Apple Music rival — YouTube Music.