YouTube expands global ban on ad blockers for its service – YouTube

According to a YouTube spokesperson, the strict approach is to enforce YouTube’s terms of use, which prohibit ad blocking.

According to the most popular video streaming service, the goal of this global initiative is to encourage viewers to allow video ads, which, according to the platform, supports creators around the world. Alternatively, you can subscribe to YouTube Premium, where you can watch videos without ads. YouTube claims that ads provide revenue for a diverse ecosystem of creators around the world and enable billions of users to access YouTube content for free.

YouTube began cracking down on ad blockers earlier this year. Initially, it simply displayed pop-ups informing users that the ad blocker they were using was violating its terms. Then he set up temporary alerts to make sure the warning was read. By June, YouTube had stepped up and banned users from playing more than three videos unless they disabled ad blockers. Initially, the move was described as a small “trial” to push users to allow ads or try the premium subscription. And now this entire experience has been expanded to include YouTube’s global user base.

It is interesting that Some references It showed that some users without ad blockers couldn’t play videos in Microsoft Edge and Firefox, but this issue was not replicated in large-scale testing. As expected, many users are taking to social media platforms like Reddit to express their frustration with YouTube’s aggressive approach. Users feel unfair pressure to allow ads or pay for a premium subscription just to watch ad-free videos. The pop-up aggressively promotes YouTube’s subscription service as an alternative, saying: “Ads keep YouTube free for billions of users around the world. With YouTube Premium, you can watch without ads and creators will still get paid through your contribution.”

YouTube Premium prices rose to $14 per month in July, up from $12 previously. In addition to ad-free viewing, Premium offers offline access, background playback, and 1080p streaming. But for users who want nothing more than an ad-free experience, the subscription cost can be prohibitive. YouTube used to offer a more affordable Premium Lite option at €7 in Europe, which only removed ads, but has discontinued it globally as of October 2022. Now in most European countries as well as in Greece, YouTube Premium is available at a cost of €8.49/⁠month.