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YouTube's Latest Move Against Ad Blockers: Video Delays

tomtad said:
I mean that's their business model, you watch ads or you pay to have them removed. As annoying as it is there's no right to view YouTube videos ad free.
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Except by YouTube implementing this, there kinda is.
 
gigatoaster said:
I’m a bit puzzled by the success of YT and why is it popular. Are there really interesting contents and meaningful? All I hear on the rare case I go over there is “please subscribe”. For ads, I’m sure there will be an update to bypass, it’s a cat game and it will always be.
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There’s content creators for basically any type of hobby people are into. I watch a lot of different people. More than any other streaming service for me nowadays.
 
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What’s funny is I wouldn’t mind the ad if it were less intrusive ie interrupting the video. And catered to my actual interests. FB and IG has literally worked on me. I was swayed into buying something from ads there because they target stuff I actually want and was already in the market for. On youtube i dont give two ***** about square space. Wtf do I need that for. Or the monopoly of that mental health spam **** I forgot what it was called. Countless other useless things on youtube ads.
 
ProbablyDylan said:
As do I. I just don't want to also deal with the cat and mouse game of blocking ads on YouTube.

Frankly, we should be more outraged about how poorly the site runs on other browsers. Weird playback quirks in Safari, deliberately taking longer to load in Firefox, etc.
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This is precisely why I'm using adblock on youtube (and other google sites) - because google is a monopoly and they can pull this 💩 to force more and more people using chrome...
 
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FSMBP said:
I really hate this business model...YouTube was ad-free when it launched in 2005 - 2010ish. It purposely bent the rules to drive viewership to their site and make them the best video service in town.

Then over the past decade once they established pretty much a monopoly, they forced disruptive ads. And now they crammed more ads per minute. And they can do so because there isn't a comparable alternative.

This business model sucks.
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You are right but YouTube is also guilty of making ad-free version almost unusable with the number of ad breaks and for offering only the expensive ad-free plans.

I was almost excited to see "YouTube Premium Lite" plan at $7.99/month, but it isn't available as a family plan. $22.99/month for family plan is a highway robbery when even Netflix charges $17.99-$24.99 for family plans.
 
Been using the Premium subscription since 2016 and never looked back. Yes, there was one or two price increases throughout the years. I can reduce my coffee shop visit once or twice to balance out.
 
MacMikePro said:
This article literally mentions that YouTube does indeed do exactly what you’re asking for. They released the Premium Lite plan for $7.99, which excludes YouTube music. $7.99 is pretty cheap and more than fair.
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You do realise that Belgium isn't part of the United States?
 
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In 2024, YouTube generated approximately $36.1 billion in advertising revenue for Google, which accounted for about 13.66% of Google's total revenue. Additionally, YouTube's subscription services contributed around $15 billion to Google's overall earnings.

These greedy bůtthole-lickers can't let a few users actually enjoy content on the once-ad-free platform that they bought and butchered.
 
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Some people just want to use YouTube to freely share videos; an alternative to hosting them themselves. (You know, in the style of an odd 2005 service known as YouTube.)

It would at least be interesting to feel out a modern mode where only such unmonetized videos were available.
 
Tip: Use YouTube signed out. I have not signed into my account in months because of this behavior. Seems to be less aggressive as signed out users can't be as easily forced to subscribe to YouTube Premium or as easily tracked.

It's a shame I can't subscribe to the creators I want to support, but it is what it is. I encourage creators to find other platforms willing to host their content.
 
“The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers”

I haven't seen ads on YouTube in years. Keep ahead of this, third party developers.
 
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MacMikePro said:
What??? You want people and companies to just make content for free??? You seriously think anyone would make streaming content or YouTube content or any kind of content if there was no money in it? That's the most insane thing I've ever heard, if everyone pirated content then the content would cease to exist, simple as that. There HAS to be money involved, in the form of either the consumer paying, or companies advertising, or both. I seriously cannot believe this needs to be explained to you.
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All I am saying is that there is A to much (bad) content and providers and B they ask to much money for it.
Would there be less providers and the price significantly lower. I wouldn't find myself forced to 🏴‍☠️.
 
I pipe the Interwebs via a 1Gbps connection, and--recently--YT has been giving me the spinnies, on the regular.

Last month, it was "Ad-Blockers are not allowed!" pop-ups.

They are doing their best!
 
klasma said:
I'm somewhat surprised that YouTube ad-blocking still works and YouTube isn't splicing the ads right into the regular video stream.
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There's already SponsorBlock for that.

I'm not seeing the delays, Firefox + uBlock Origin is working fine for me.
 
MacRumors said:


YouTube is deliberately slowing video loading for users with ad blockers enabled, in what appears to be an escalation in Google's campaign against ad-blocking extensions.

General-YouTube-Feature-Redux.jpg

Multiple users across Reddit and the Brave browser forum report videos displaying black screens for the typical duration of pre-roll ads before content begins playing. The video player simultaneously shows a pop-up ("Experiencing interruptions? Find out why") with a link directing users to a Google support page about disabling ad-blocking extensions, suggesting the slowdowns are intentional.

The recent crackdown is a shift from YouTube's previous tactics of simply displaying warning messages or blocking video playback entirely. The new approach inserts artificial delays that mirror the time you would spend watching advertisements, basically forcing the same annoying time investment, whether ads are blocked or not.

It looks like specific user accounts previously flagged for ad-blocking behavior are being targeted, potentially bypassing detection methods that extension developers typically use to counter YouTube's measures. PCWorld confirmed the behavior using uBlock Origin Lite, while Brave browser users report similar experiences despite the browser's built-in ad-blocking capabilities.

youtube-slowdown-ads.jpeg

Pop-up users see during delays (Image credit: PCWorld)​

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.

For what it's worth, YouTube recently introduced a Premium Lite plan for $7.99/month that removes ads for most videos, excluding music content, Shorts, and when you search or browse.

Article Link: YouTube's Latest Move Against Ad Blockers: Video Delays
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The more they tighten their grip, the more users that will slip through their fingers.
 
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MacRumors said:


YouTube is deliberately slowing video loading for users with ad blockers enabled, in what appears to be an escalation in Google's campaign against ad-blocking extensions.

General-YouTube-Feature-Redux.jpg

Multiple users across Reddit and the Brave browser forum report videos displaying black screens for the typical duration of pre-roll ads before content begins playing. The video player simultaneously shows a pop-up ("Experiencing interruptions? Find out why") with a link directing users to a Google support page about disabling ad-blocking extensions, suggesting the slowdowns are intentional.

The recent crackdown is a shift from YouTube's previous tactics of simply displaying warning messages or blocking video playback entirely. The new approach inserts artificial delays that mirror the time you would spend watching advertisements, basically forcing the same annoying time investment, whether ads are blocked or not.

It looks like specific user accounts previously flagged for ad-blocking behavior are being targeted, potentially bypassing detection methods that extension developers typically use to counter YouTube's measures. PCWorld confirmed the behavior using uBlock Origin Lite, while Brave browser users report similar experiences despite the browser's built-in ad-blocking capabilities.

youtube-slowdown-ads.jpeg

Pop-up users see during delays (Image credit: PCWorld)​

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.

For what it's worth, YouTube recently introduced a Premium Lite plan for $7.99/month that removes ads for most videos, excluding music content, Shorts, and when you search or browse.

Article Link: YouTube's Latest Move Against Ad Blockers: Video Delays
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I just have my iPad or phone nearby and play chess while the adds are on.
 
Welp, Vinegar no longer works (until it updates I hope). Just get a black screen and nothing else. Gonna try a few alternatives now
 
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