This latest move suggests YouTube is prepared to significantly degrade the user experience for non-paying users who refuse to view advertisements or subscribe to the $13.99 monthly YouTube Premium service, which offers an ad-free experience, offline downloads, and background playback.
See, this right here concisely encapsulates why so many people so strongly object to YouTube's business model.
First off, they've somehow decided that they're so "in-the-right" on this issue that they're allowed to
punish users who refuse to watch their ads. Sorry-not-sorry, but that's just not how any of this works:
I am absolutely never required to watch your ads. My eyeballs are mine, not yours. Ads have been playing on television and radio for literally decades before YouTube ever came on the scene... in fact, the very first ads hit radio waves
over a century ago -- and viewers/listeners have
always had the ability to simply ignore those ads. Come on, folks, let's all say it together: What are commercial breaks good for?
"Bathroom and/or snack breaks!"
Google doesn't get to suddenly change that ages-old paradigm, just because they're still trying to maximize the profitability of their already incredibly lucrative platform. And just as television ads always have, the YouTube ads will
still turn a profit for both YouTube and for advertisers, by commanding the undivided attention of those who are too tired/lazy/resigned to actually get up and go get a snack (or to block those ads, as the case may be).
But then, as if to add insult to injury, they actually decided to spend developer cycles and money in order to go out of their way to
actively degrade the features of both their mobile app and mobile website, in order to "disable" common features that usually "just work," such as background playback -- otherwise known as "picture-in-picture." For the vast majority of websites and/or apps with embedded videos, you can opt to watch those videos in a floating window on your cellphone or tablet while you're doing anything else on your device that might suit your fancy...
But, hey-slow-down-there-tex --
not on YouTube... they want you to
pay for those features! Because clearly, releasing a one-trick-pony so-called "premium service" which basically just enables skipping ads is too much of an obvious grift... so it has to do
something else, in order to justify it's very existence.
And once again, sorry-not-sorry... but the bottom line is, if I'm absolutely
forced to pay for the content I consume, it sure as hell isn't going to be the time wasting drivel that I mindlessly doom scroll through on YouTube when I'm bored; rather, I'll spend that money elsewhere, such as the "we can't decide on a name!" Max service or the "we desperately want to sell ourselves!" Paramount service, or the "hey... everybody else is doing ads -- maybe we should, too!" Netflix service, or the "who needs
new content when you can just release another remake?!" Disney service. Sure, maybe every service has their issues, but at least the rest aren't actively
trying to make things worse for their viewers. (Well... okay, maybe Netflix is.)
But hey, you know, instead of fighting tooth-and-nail with their own viewers over minor features and ads, YouTube
could maybe go back to the drawing board and
actually try to innovate for a change.
(I know, I know... that's clearly a tall order... but we can dream.)
www.forbes.com
