20 ms·

YouTube currently testing 5 to 10 unskippable ads before video starts

102 points by xvello 4y ago

tmaly 4y ago
I cancelled cable many years ago due to lack of time and the amount of ads I had to watch. There are alternatives like Rumble that I would consider moving to if the difference is that I have to watch 1 ad instead of 5.
Jemm 4y ago
They do it because they can, which in this case means that enough people will put up with lots of ads. Sad truth about humanity is they don't care.
2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
This sucks because YouTube is basically part of the culture. When people send vids at work, it's YouTube. When teachers share clips with students, it's YouTube. Most embedded videos on the web are YouTube. Now, all of that, will play 5-10 ads? The direction that tech has gone is starting to lose me.
- MiguelX413 4y ago
  That's exactly why it's good that it does something like this. I doubt it'll actually go throughw this this, but the more it fails and becomes unpopular, the better.
solarkraft 4y ago
One of my reasons against getting an iOS device is that I won't be able to block YouTube ads.
MiguelX413 4y ago
I'm sad to see that nobody has mentioned Peertube here.
- JohnFen 4y ago
  The last time I tried Peertube, it was truly horrible. Has it improved?
nuc1e0n 4y ago
Another point to consider: Why does youtube permit ads to run that not only are not effective in generating revenue for the advertisers (as no users click through on them) but also harm user opinions of wanting to use youtube in general. Will google make the same mistakes that television made? A significant portion of purchases are now made online, so if users don't click through an ad that directly means they won't be buying the thing being advertised.
- dewey 4y ago
  > Will google make the same mistakes that television made? TV didn't go away because of ads but because consumers shifted to a different model of consuming content. > also harm user opinions of wanting to use youtube in general Most people browse the web and don't even know about ad blockers. It's a very small bubble that's really loud and anti-ads. I hear from many people that actually like Instagram ads as they act as a recommendation engine for them. > Why does youtube permit ads to run that not only are not effective Advertisers test different ad copies and versions A LOT. You can be sure that if there's an ad running it's at least somewhat effective for the use case they are trying to achieve. Just like billboards an ad also can just increase awareness even if you don't click through.
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    > TV didn't go away because of ads but because consumers shifted to a different model of consuming content. Perhaps. But a nontrivial percentage of people I know stopped watching TV because of the ads (especially the overlay ads) well before there were any serious alternatives to TV. So, at least some audience was driven away by them.
    - max51 4y ago
      A lot of them would not have made the switch if the only way to watch your favorite TV show on Netflix was to login at the exact time that it airs every week, and you couldn't watch the old episodes, and they only had a catalog of a few dozen shows at a time. It was the same with music before streaming. It was literally faster and easier to pirate it than to rip the songs from your legally purchased CD if you had an MP3 player.
JoeAltmaier 4y ago
I've noticed lately they've deliberately gotten intolerably annoying, to coerce viewers into paying. It seems every day they up the ante, until it seems there are two or three unskippable ads every 5 minutes.
mark_l_watson 4y ago
They won't make it so annoying that they lose substantial percentage of viewers. Hopefully not off topic: I continue to be surprised at how many of my friends don't pay for an ad-free YouTube (virtually all of them!). For about $15/month my wife and I get YouTube Music that includes ad-free (but content creators sometimes embed their own ads) YouTube. A bonus: when listening to old music from my youth, I am surprised at how often they have old videos available of the bands playing.
- wh4t3v3r 4y ago
  I continue to be surprised at how many of technical people do not use either browser with extension like ublock origin or in case of IoT devices - Adguard.
- hasbot 4y ago
  I don't pay for ad-free YouTube. Instead I use an ad-blocker and never see ads. If I'm on my phone I use NewPipe, a free YouTube client that doesn't display ads.
- silisili 4y ago
  I think the problem for me is that ad free isn't ad free with YouTube. It seems half the videos I come across are littered with sponsored segments. Often multiple in the same video. Worse, there's whole cadres of reviewers, mainly in tech, who have created a weird feedback loop causing their entire videos to be subtle ads. Reviewer gets popular, reviewer quits job to youtube full time, reviewer needs to get early access to make reviews, reviewer is told what they can and can't say by mfg. Mess up or give negative review, they'll never get another early access from said company. So their entire job has become to basically advertise. There's a few channels I'll watch that I trust, like Project Farm, VCG, a couple carpentry ones I don't remember the name of. The thing in common is they mostly seem to be older guys and/or people just making videos for fun.
  - jerojero 4y ago
    Theres a handy extension called sponsor block that skips sponsored content (and other non relevant content if you wish) from videos. If you have both adblock and sponsorblock you can pretty much have a completely ad-free experience. But at that point, is it fair to the creators? I guess as long as not enough people are aware then it's not a problem; though obviously not a solution. In reality, the whole "creator economy" that's based on using the creators influence to sell products (which btw are almost always unrelated to what the creator actually does) seems to me like a problematic way of finding art and content.
b0afc375b5 4y ago
On a personal note I think this is a great thing. More recently I have been catching myself mindlessly infinitely scrolling YouTube. And after I reach the bottom, I refresh YouTube only to find mostly the same recommended videos, and the cycle repeats. With enough ads, hopefully I would finally be able to let go of YouTube.
- throwaway23236 4y ago
  I recently did that and did not look back! Enjoying my library (ebooks and audiobooks) through the Libby app along with using the money I am saving from YouTube to instead pay for a news subscription.
throwaway23236 4y ago
Not exactly related, but I paid for YouTube premium for a few months because I can not stand the amount of ads I see. I recently canceled my YouTube premium subscription and started borrowing ebooks and audiobooks from my library via the Libby, by Overdrive app and it works great! I took that money from YouTube and instead moved to to a https://ground.news/ https://ground.news/ subscription which helps me stay on top of current events going on. I've been enjoying that setup better and I am glad I am slowly where I can taking control of my attention.
DrNosferatu 4y ago
You might find this useful: NewPipe x SponsorBlock x Return YouTube Dislike - a fork of NewPipe with SponsorBlock and Return YouTube Dislike functionality. https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe
- skrowl 4y ago
  https://github.com/SkyTubeTeam/SkyTube https://github.com/SkyTubeTeam/SkyTube also very good for YouTube + adblock + sponsorblock
Vixel 4y ago
If ads, or more ads, are bothering you that much, you're probably using youtube a lot and should subscribe to Youtube Premium. I've cancelled all my subscriptions except this one because it is an amazing value. You wouldn't believe how much better youtube is with no ads. And youtube music is pretty good as well.
pcf 4y ago
You can just VPN into India and sign up for a family subscription to YouTube Premium. Total cost per month for six people? Just 189 INR = 2.4 USD. And remember that YouTube Premium also includes the music streaming service YouTube Music. No need for Spotify or anything else. So now I don't have to pay 10 USD per month for Spotify anymore, there aren't ads anywhere on YouTube or YouTube Music – AND I have given all of this for free to the rest of my family and some friends.
darepublic 4y ago
Begin the mass downloading
Kye 4y ago
I posted this two years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23769291 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23769291 And it keeps getting worse from the looks of it.
JohnHaugeland 4y ago
I am of the belief that these over-aggressive advertising strategies are basically saying "hey, TikTok, it's time for you to be #1" I worry that this is basically the end of YouTube
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
thdespou 4y ago
Well somehow youtube has to pay all of those video influencers their money
modshatereality 4y ago
Two things: I don't watch streams NOR do I play videos higher than 720p. Will the number of ads I see be an accurate reflection of my overall load on their system or will everyone be subjected to this 5->10 commercial barbarism? If this means I don't get ambushed by 5 ads at peak moments mid-stream (requiring me to waste time watching ad AND rewinding...), the ad count is fair reflection of user load, and the money goes to real producers instead of enriching executive quality-of-life or funding some new dystopian censorship corps, then OK.
protocontrol 4y ago
Keep shooting themselves in the foot
- rco8786 4y ago
  Are they? What’s the alternative?
  - zarzavat 4y ago
    An adblocker. I don’t see any ads on YouTube at all.
  - nuc1e0n 4y ago
    An alternative will be produced if youtube becomes a hassle to use. 30 years ago people watched television, but the ads became too numerous. Now only boomers watch it at all.
    - rco8786 4y ago
      > 30 years ago people watched television, but the ads became too numerous. Now only boomers watch it at all. The current state of streaming tv is no better than cable in terms of ads
    - ranger47 4y ago
      Nebula is trying to bill itself as an alternative, but I am not convinced it will gain the traction it needs to become what we might call a YT alternative. Users have griped about the ads on YT for years now, yet they keep using it, which just affirms that YT can inject as many ads as it wants without risking its user base. By continuing to use a product we complain about, we are giving that product permission to continue doing things we don't like.
      - JohnFen 4y ago
        I gave Nebula an honest try, but their Android app was effectively unusable for me, so I cancelled my subscription.
bradhe 4y ago
Fun fact: If you report the ad, it skips that ad and all remaining ones and goes straight to the video.
- hkh28 4y ago
  I found out that if you do that enough times, your account will permanently lose the ability to report ads. At least, the option is no longer present on my account.
  - sshine 4y ago
    So that’s what happened! I used to report all ads as offensive, because they are.
sherman89 4y ago
Firefox + uBlock Origin = no ads. Also on mobile :)
- moxieta 4y ago
- anhner 4y ago
  Also on Android*, unfortunately. If you want adblocking youtube on iOS I recommend using Safari with the vinegar (paid) extension. (And wipr for general adblocking) ETA: If I remember correctly, Brave Browser also has ad blocking built in. For youtube as well.
  - Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
    Does iOS allow VPNs? I imagine it does. I set up a PiHole in the cloud and set it up so it requires VPN access so that nothing between my phone and the PiHole can fuck with the DNS packets. I VPN into it on my Android and get ad blocking almost* everwhere. I've also configured it to only tunnel DNS lookups, so I don't get charge egress fees for all my phone's traffic, which, granted isn't a lot, but whatever. * Sadly, it doesn't block YouTube ads, but I rarely access YouTube on my phone anyways.
  - waihtis 4y ago
    A free alternative is Firefox Focus browser which adblocks by default. Problem is it nukes each session after you close it, so not very persistent
    - serbanTeodor 4y ago
      Does it allow multi tabs? I think the name 'Focus' would suggest they still not support multiple tabs opened?
    - anhner 4y ago
      I just remembered, I think I heard Brave Browser also blocks youtube ads. Will update my original comment.
nuc1e0n 4y ago
Well I'd imagine youtube's infrastructure is very expensive. I guess they can no longer pretend the service they provide for free doesn't need to be funded. What did people expect?
- A-Train 4y ago
  It is expensive but even then Youtube has been profitable for many years now. It represents 10% of Google revenue. 5-10 ads is a cash grab imho.
  - sofixa 4y ago
    > even then Youtube has been profitable for many years now How do you know this? > It represents 10% of Google revenue. Revenue != profit. Storing zettabytes of videos across the whole world, with the massive CDNs required to be able to serve that whole world isn't cheap. I can easily see YouTube being among the most costly things Google do.
  - samtheDamned 4y ago
    unless it changed recently it has never been profitable
- ngokevin 4y ago
  I expect they profit just fine off of the data they gather alone
- mikymoothrowa 4y ago
  But you would think that the company selling “targeted advertisements” wouldn’t have to show 10 ads before every video to get make profit. Profiteering off of their established position. Youtube PMs have OKRs
mcintyre1994 4y ago
I wonder if they time limit unskippable ads. I've seen some stupidly long ones, where it seems like someone has just made their hour+ long podcast recording into an ad or something.
- larrik 4y ago
  supposedly the entire LEGO Movie was used as a YouTube ad for its sequel...
joshvince 4y ago
> "Imagine wanting to watch a video on how to help one of your loved ones who is choking and you get 10 unskippable ads before you can watch the video." Someone pop this in a time capsule and label it "peak twitter, early 21st century"
- MrGilbert 4y ago
  "Darling, please call 911!" "Wait, I just found a tutorial! I just need to skip the Intro! And the personal story behind this tutorial! And todays message from their sponsor!"
- quickthrower2 4y ago
  Huh? Who thinks of youtube in an emergency? How about 911?
  - tonmoy 4y ago
    Serious question, should I call 911 if someone is chocking and I don’t know what to do? Would the operator instruct me what to do over the phone?
    - JohnFen 4y ago
      Serious answer: yes.
    - rado 4y ago
      If 911 works with ambulances, yes.
    - JD557 4y ago
      While fortunately I never had to call 911, I'm pretty sure this should be the case. Whoever answers the phone should be ready to either give you immediate instructions (or transfer you to someone who can do that) until an ambulance/police arrives.
    - BenjiWiebe 4y ago
      Yes, you will be walked through first aid procedures while the ambulance is on the way.
simion314 4y ago
Someone will say to pay for Premium but weird thing Google(and other giants) have very limited payment methods. I do not understand why Steam,Gog, Patreon and small companies you never heard of can offer various payments methods (like PayPal) but the giants are limited to credit cards, maybe they don't want my money or they really want the credit cards? or maybe PayPal is too difficult to handle for a giant but small companies have no choice? Anyone knows?
- LegitShady 4y ago
  I support companies not using paypal. paypal is a terrible company with terrible policies and behaviours, and companies not offering paypal is a mark of excellence to me.
  - simion314 4y ago
    I would not disagree with your PayPal opinion, but this does not explain why companies that really want to sell stuff will let me use PayPal but Google and Amazon does not, their lose, I use ad blocker for YouTube and found audiobooks on a different company that wants my money. So I am curious what Google/Amazon thinks about this (not your personal opinion about PayPal if I should not have the choice to use anything else then VISA/MasterCard)
- willis936 4y ago
  I use apple pay for youtube premium. Sure, that's just a mirror for a credit card, but it is an option.
coreyh14444 4y ago
Folks, just pay for YouTube Premium. In my family, between my kids and myself we watch more YouTube than Netflix/Disney+/Hulu combined so the YouTube family plan is the best value going.
- tomjen3 4y ago
  Thats great for you. For me, its way overpriced, considering they are not creating any of the content and it doesn't actually cover all ads.
  - colejohnson66 4y ago
    > and it doesn't actually cover all ads That's not true at all. I've been paying for Premium for over a year, and I can say with certainty that I have seen zero ads placed by YouTube. The only ones I've seen are ones creators put in themselves.
    - mrguyorama 4y ago
      So it doesn't cover all ads. Sponsored content is advertising. If youtube premium doesn't result in creators making enough to support themselves then it's feeding youtube for no net gain. Any "pay for youtube directly" strategy MUST result in a creator 1) not needing to get external revenue from merch, sponsors, patreon, or anything like that. 2) not be so at the mercy of youtube algorithms and unaccountable decision trees that content match them to silence, remove their payment through "demonitization", and provide actual support to the creators so they can focus on creating instead of whipping up public shitstorms just to get basic support, and 3) reward creators for making higher quality content, instead of more addictive or "engaging" content. Right now Youtube Premium isn't that service. What is that service? Floatplane and nebula are trying to be that service. Nebula specifically has nearly every high quality, "tech, science, invention, discovery, learning etc" content creators and it's like $100 a year. All of my favorite content creators are part of it.
    - tomjen3 4y ago
      Exactly. Not all ads.
donatj 4y ago
YouTube being the primary streaming service I consume, I have been more than happy to pay for ad free YouTube Premium.
2Gkashmiri 4y ago
https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe/ https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe/ newpipe+sponsorblock. you can thank me later. on desktop, firefox+ublock origin
kornhole 4y ago
I wish that next to the thumbs up button was a support icon that allowed you to fund the creator a small amount in an easy way. The platform owner would get a percentage.
- xvello 4y ago
  It's actually implemented, and called "Super Thanks", with a heart icon. IIRC the creator has to enable it on their channel for the button to show up.
- rchaud 4y ago
  They already have that. When people livestream, there are buttons you can click to pay money: $5, $10, $20 etc. Looks really gauche and cheap, but then again so does most of the 'creator' economy.
  - mrguyorama 4y ago
    That's specific to streaming though. For some reason, streaming content has all devolved to just cam sites but without any nudity. The way watchers "interact" and how the streamers are encouraged to "interact" back with whoever swings their dick the biggest because mommy's credit card has a higher limit is gross and massively ruins all streaming for me. Vinesauce has existed since before twitch, but a while back they moved onto twitch and it's been downhill ever since. It seems like you are required to aim your content more at 12 year olds if you stream, instead of a broad audience, because maybe 12 year olds are more susceptible to the weird mind game that streaming is. If you've never watched a twitch stream, just say "poggers" to yourself for two straight hours for an accurate experience.
dewey 4y ago
YouTube Premium is easily the best subscription I pay for every month. Use a VPN, set it to Argentinia, go to youtube.com/premium, sign up with your regular credit card and use without a VPN as usual from now on while paying 2 USD / month.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- hombre_fatal 4y ago
  Interesting. I couldn’t pay for Premium until I was VPN’ed into the country on my credit card. It wouldn’t let me get the plan of the country I was living in.
mchesters 4y ago
This is misleading. From my experience watching Youtube on a Samsung TV, the quantity are sometimes spread across an entire video, at intervals set by the creator. I.e. 8 adverts over a 1 hour video. This is also no evidence that these adverts are not skippable. I don't like Youtube's advertising, but this tweet is very low effort.
- hombre_fatal 4y ago
  Unskippable ads before a video have been around for a while (no skip button). It just has been limited to a couple ads. The tweet is claiming this number has increased lately. My guess is that since unskippable ads could already be a couple minute long, they are testing with shorter ads in that timeframe while still filling up the time block. This isn’t very interesting without knowing how long the ads run.
  - mchesters 4y ago
    I wasn't clear about the skippable ads: the screenshots in this tweet only include the top-left qty and timer, not the bottom right of the screen which might be showing a 'Skip Ad' button. The UI also looks exactly like Youtube on TVs, which from my experience, does this '3 of 10' for ALL adverts across an extended video. This tweet has nothing to prove what they're saying, my guess is they're trying to stir up controversy. edit: it's pretty clear that most here are more interested in sharing their dislike for ads or preferred adblocker solution, rather than even considering the legitimacy of the claims made in the tweet :(
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
atan2 4y ago
More and more, this model of "free" content that basically fills webpages with ads will fall. Most companies are realizing that ads do not work, which means we will have to start paying (actual money) for good content. And since users are going to pay from their pockets anyway, I would seriously consider moving content away from youtube and hosting my own stuff. For example, if I am going to take a course, I'd rather take it on the creator's website, where I'll have an LMS with no ads and no thumbnsils with clickbait recommendations tempting me to move away from what I am learning. Youtube is nice if I want to watch a quick video while I'm running at the gym, but it does not create a protected learning path.
- regularperson26 4y ago
  >which means we will have to start paying (actual money) for good content. I think both options will be available as it is now. I personally don't like the idea of paying for every particular thing that I consume. (kind of whats happening with streaming services lately) Not only because it is a hassle but also those single payments quickly add up, ultimately hurting creators.
- account42 4y ago
  This assumes that most content creators are paid at all right now. There is still an endless stream of content that was created just for fun and mostly its just the platforms hosting the content profiting from it.
- Corrado 4y ago
  Isn't this what Nebula[0] is targeting? For a low, yearly subscription you can directly support creators without having to rely on Ads. I'm pretty seriously considering subscribing to the Curiosity Stream / Nebula bundle and leaving YouTube behind completely. [0]https://nebula.app/ https://nebula.app/
- rchaud 4y ago
  > I would seriously consider moving content away from youtube and hosting my own stuff. Most people offering courses already do this. So instead of useful information, they post spam videos to Youtube, atop which these ads will presumably run in the future.
hooby 4y ago
Imho, the big question here is, if there's actually a trend. Was it easier, 10 years ago, to make money from a website, with just one single (non-animated) banner on top, than it is today with a website that's plastered with animated banners, link ads, and other stuff? Was it easier, 10 years ago, to make money from a video platform, with just one single skip-able ad at the start of each video - than it is today with 10 un-skip-able ads in front of each video? Was it easier to advertise your business 100 years ago, with a single poster on a street corner - than it is today with a huge ad-campaign consisting of TV-, Radio- and Newspaper-Ads? The big question to me is: Does advertising become less and less effective the more people are exposed to advertisements? Advertisers are measuring the actual effectiveness of their ads, and paying for that only. Therefore falling effectiveness means falling prices and you have to increase the quantity of ads, to earn the same money (and achieve the same effect) as before. But increased quantity means people are exposed to even more ads, which means they become even less effective. Which leads to even lower prices and even higher quantity. This can't go on forever... at some point the loss of effectiveness is going to be larger than what you can possibly make up for by increasing quantity. And there's an upper limit - you can't push quantity above 60 minutes of ads per hour. This can only end with all users either signing up for premium, leaving the service all-together, or using ad-blockers. In all three cases, the ad-business looses. Are we witnessing the slow death of (online) advertising?
- tdeck 4y ago
  Does anyone even remember when YouTube had no pre-roll or mid-roll ads at all, only small banner ads? That used to be the thing I liked about YouTube compared to all the other video sites.
- ASalazarMX 4y ago
  Advertising is immensely wasteful, and its market is already oversaturated, it has to double down each year to get the same returns of last year. Nevertheless, I think we're seeing a cycle, not its death: few ads -> excessive ads -> ad-free options -> repeat
  - david38 4y ago
Overtonwindow 4y ago
I will treat it like every other advertisement that I cannot skip: mute. I just mute and look at my phone, because I will not watch ads.
bArray 4y ago
Just a little plug that I run ytoff: https://github.com/danielbarry/ytoff https://github.com/danielbarry/ytoff It needs some work, but it downloads a video locally, bypassing ads and great for offline use.
lizardactivist 4y ago
I can't even fast-forward a video without them showing more ads now. It feels like I get to watch 1 minute video between adverts now, and YouTube is nearing the point where I just don't give a damn about it anymore.
- trash3 4y ago
bigtex 4y ago
I haven’t seen an ad on YouTube in ages with ublock origin.
- shishy 4y ago
  Yeah. I got a Smart TV recently and with the YouTube app started seeing ads again. I think I have to just stream from my laptop instead of using the apps :(. Probably better that way though, typing with the remote is terrible!
  - archontes 4y ago
    You should check out SmartTube Next
  - skrowl 4y ago
    https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext/ https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext/ if its Android TV
- isthisthingon99 4y ago
  have you considered to just pay for youtube? you can add up to 6 people in your family who can also use it and your money goes to the content creators you watch, minus youtube's cut probably. that's what I do.
  - wan_ala 4y ago
  - Corrado 4y ago
    Interesting... I did not know that you could share your YouTube paid status with other family members. I despise the Ads that YouTube shows me and would do almost anything to remove them from my phone, iPad, and TV. I already use a blocker for Firefox, so at least I have some respite on my computer.
    - isthisthingon99 4y ago
peanut_worm 4y ago
What happens when everyone starts using ad block? Is the advertising market just going to collapse? I don’t think even the most willing consumer would sit through 10 ads for a youtube video.
- JohnFen 4y ago
  We can but hope. History, however, teaches us that the ad companies will find some other sneaky and awful tactic instead.
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  What happens when everyone installs antivirus? Is the virus market just going to collapse? What happens when every e-mail provider has good spam filtering? Is the spam market going to collapse? Etc.
- propogandist 4y ago
  Google will begin crippling the technology that enables the adblocking, like the upcoming manifest v3 change.
- photoGrant 4y ago
  Advertising is to Ad Blocking as Viruses are to Anti Virus. One will never stop trying to outrun the other. Ever.
  - peanut_worm 4y ago
    Sure but even there computer viruses have changed a lot since the 90s and 2000s. First they were purely destructive classical viruses and worms, then they shifted to extorting people with fake antiviruses and trojans, and now they are mostly ransomware. Malware is much more rare but also a lot more dangerous now. Will we see some similar shift in advertising?
- kjkjadksj 4y ago
  The companies making the ads are capable of hiring orders of mangnitudes more engineers than however many people volunteer to maintain adblockers. Google/youtube is already using their monopoly on the browser to prevent ad blocking via extension changes.
danrocks 4y ago
I subscribe to Youtube TV and I feel like they have been doing this in there already. It was a great service and now not only do I have to pay $65 a month for the service but also have to watch 3 3-minute advertisement blocks during a 30-min episode of Family Guy. It's starting to make cable more attractive.
- Minor49er 4y ago
  At that point, why not just get a copy of the series on DVD or Blu-ray? You can rip a copy to a NAS (or a flash drive if you have a smart TV with a USB port) if you would rather have a streaming experience. Copies of the show often show up in good condition at second-hand bookstores. You wouldn't have to worry about ads, the show getting rotated in or out of the cable/streaming service, could resell the copies if you don't want them anymore, and would be paying only for the shows that you want to see
endisneigh 4y ago
I don’t like ads, especially not irrelevant and excessive ones (I pay for YouTube premium), but the amount of people bragging about getting around ads is just sad. I assume most of us here have jobs. Are we ok with working for free? Many people on YouTube do it full time, with ad revenue and exposure being their primary source of income. Somehow some people have it in their heads that if the job is entertainment then it’s not worth paying for, but is simultaneously worth consuming.
- eek2121 4y ago
  The issue to me is cost vs benefit to creators. I do back a few of my favorite Youtubers on Patreon (actually, I pay them each more than I would pay YouTube), however, creators actually receive very little from YouTube Premium subscriptions.
  - max51 4y ago
    >creators actually receive very little from YouTube Premium subscriptions. They actually receive a lot more cash for per view from YouTube premium viewers compared to free ad-supported users. And it's not even close, we're talking an order of magnitude more money per view when it's youtube premium
- tomjen3 4y ago
  I was at the busstop this morning. There was an ad. I turned my back to it and looked at my phone. Please tell me that I am a horrible human for defrauding the advertisers. If I could get AR glasses which automatically removes any ad before I see it, I be a bad person too?
  - endisneigh 4y ago
    No, that would be fine - it’s not really the analogous situation. If the bus were “free” and you paid by spending 30 seconds watching an ad, disabling the device showing you the ad would be bad, not paying attention would be fine.
Maelcum 4y ago
Unwanted advertising is spam. Period. A lot of junk mail landed in my mailbox when I moved to a new place, until I put a red dot sticker on it. Within a week or two, they disappeared. We should implement this "red dot sticker" feature in browsers (with optional exceptions), and pages, services and whatnot should respect it, or they will be facing fines. Fines that really hurt.
- hiccuphippo 4y ago
  Do websites respect the DNT (Do Not Track) header? Oh wait, it seems to have been deprecated :(
- revlolz 4y ago
  What is a red dot sticker?
  - Maelcum 4y ago
    Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/red-dot-stickers/s?k=red+dot+stickers https://www.amazon.com/red-dot-stickers/s?k=red+dot+stickers Putting one on the mailbox means "No flyers please!", at least where I live.
    - JohnFen 4y ago
      I'd never heard of that before. I wish it were a thing where I live. But at least in my apartment complex, the recycling bin is right next to the mailboxes, so I can conveniently just move the junk mail straight from my mailbox to the bin.
      - Maelcum 4y ago
        The interesting thing is that there was a sticker inside the mailbox already, but it didn't work, my mailbox was filled with junk mail, and I put them in the bins too. I guess the others don't mind the flyers and stuff, because the bins are still pretty full, every time I check my mailbox.
togs 4y ago
Should probably just pay for YT Premium. Expensive, maybe, but supports the platform. Takes money to maintain software, provide bandwidth and storage. Lots of music. Has vast library going back 15 years now. Creators can be supported (although the incentives are to make ad-friendly content, which usually disappoints) via Patreon (to incentivize content that isn't as ad-friendly). Some will feign that people will want to deal with hosting video, decentralized, at scale. They won't. Only nerds will; you and me. Nobody else cares because it's slow and less convenient (not even throwing shade, that's just a good product). Plus less and less people can afford housing so that's less people affording PCs for their housing/hosting (nobody is going to host from their laptop on coffee wifi). We can be upset about that, or we can just accept it.

102 points by xvello 4y ago

I cancelled cable many years ago due to lack of time and the amount of ads I had to watch. There are alternatives like Rumble that I would consider moving to if the difference is that I have to watch 1 ad instead of 5.

Jemm 4y ago

They do it because they can, which in this case means that enough people will put up with lots of ads. Sad truth about humanity is they don't care.

2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago

This sucks because YouTube is basically part of the culture. When people send vids at work, it's YouTube. When teachers share clips with students, it's YouTube. Most embedded videos on the web are YouTube. Now, all of that, will play 5-10 ads? The direction that tech has gone is starting to lose me.

MiguelX413 4y ago
That's exactly why it's good that it does something like this. I doubt it'll actually go throughw this this, but the more it fails and becomes unpopular, the better.

solarkraft 4y ago

One of my reasons against getting an iOS device is that I won't be able to block YouTube ads.

MiguelX413 4y ago

I'm sad to see that nobody has mentioned Peertube here.

JohnFen 4y ago
The last time I tried Peertube, it was truly horrible. Has it improved?

nuc1e0n 4y ago

Another point to consider: Why does youtube permit ads to run that not only are not effective in generating revenue for the advertisers (as no users click through on them) but also harm user opinions of wanting to use youtube in general. Will google make the same mistakes that television made? A significant portion of purchases are now made online, so if users don't click through an ad that directly means they won't be buying the thing being advertised.

dewey 4y ago
> Will google make the same mistakes that television made? TV didn't go away because of ads but because consumers shifted to a different model of consuming content. > also harm user opinions of wanting to use youtube in general Most people browse the web and don't even know about ad blockers. It's a very small bubble that's really loud and anti-ads. I hear from many people that actually like Instagram ads as they act as a recommendation engine for them. > Why does youtube permit ads to run that not only are not effective Advertisers test different ad copies and versions A LOT. You can be sure that if there's an ad running it's at least somewhat effective for the use case they are trying to achieve. Just like billboards an ad also can just increase awareness even if you don't click through.
- JohnFen 4y ago
  > TV didn't go away because of ads but because consumers shifted to a different model of consuming content. Perhaps. But a nontrivial percentage of people I know stopped watching TV because of the ads (especially the overlay ads) well before there were any serious alternatives to TV. So, at least some audience was driven away by them.
  - max51 4y ago
    A lot of them would not have made the switch if the only way to watch your favorite TV show on Netflix was to login at the exact time that it airs every week, and you couldn't watch the old episodes, and they only had a catalog of a few dozen shows at a time. It was the same with music before streaming. It was literally faster and easier to pirate it than to rip the songs from your legally purchased CD if you had an MP3 player.

JoeAltmaier 4y ago

I've noticed lately they've deliberately gotten intolerably annoying, to coerce viewers into paying. It seems every day they up the ante, until it seems there are two or three unskippable ads every 5 minutes.

mark_l_watson 4y ago

They won't make it so annoying that they lose substantial percentage of viewers. Hopefully not off topic: I continue to be surprised at how many of my friends don't pay for an ad-free YouTube (virtually all of them!). For about $15/month my wife and I get YouTube Music that includes ad-free (but content creators sometimes embed their own ads) YouTube. A bonus: when listening to old music from my youth, I am surprised at how often they have old videos available of the bands playing.

wh4t3v3r 4y ago
I continue to be surprised at how many of technical people do not use either browser with extension like ublock origin or in case of IoT devices - Adguard.
hasbot 4y ago
I don't pay for ad-free YouTube. Instead I use an ad-blocker and never see ads. If I'm on my phone I use NewPipe, a free YouTube client that doesn't display ads.
silisili 4y ago
I think the problem for me is that ad free isn't ad free with YouTube. It seems half the videos I come across are littered with sponsored segments. Often multiple in the same video. Worse, there's whole cadres of reviewers, mainly in tech, who have created a weird feedback loop causing their entire videos to be subtle ads. Reviewer gets popular, reviewer quits job to youtube full time, reviewer needs to get early access to make reviews, reviewer is told what they can and can't say by mfg. Mess up or give negative review, they'll never get another early access from said company. So their entire job has become to basically advertise. There's a few channels I'll watch that I trust, like Project Farm, VCG, a couple carpentry ones I don't remember the name of. The thing in common is they mostly seem to be older guys and/or people just making videos for fun.
- jerojero 4y ago
  Theres a handy extension called sponsor block that skips sponsored content (and other non relevant content if you wish) from videos. If you have both adblock and sponsorblock you can pretty much have a completely ad-free experience. But at that point, is it fair to the creators? I guess as long as not enough people are aware then it's not a problem; though obviously not a solution. In reality, the whole "creator economy" that's based on using the creators influence to sell products (which btw are almost always unrelated to what the creator actually does) seems to me like a problematic way of finding art and content.

b0afc375b5 4y ago

On a personal note I think this is a great thing. More recently I have been catching myself mindlessly infinitely scrolling YouTube. And after I reach the bottom, I refresh YouTube only to find mostly the same recommended videos, and the cycle repeats. With enough ads, hopefully I would finally be able to let go of YouTube.

throwaway23236 4y ago
I recently did that and did not look back! Enjoying my library (ebooks and audiobooks) through the Libby app along with using the money I am saving from YouTube to instead pay for a news subscription.

throwaway23236 4y ago

Not exactly related, but I paid for YouTube premium for a few months because I can not stand the amount of ads I see. I recently canceled my YouTube premium subscription and started borrowing ebooks and audiobooks from my library via the Libby, by Overdrive app and it works great! I took that money from YouTube and instead moved to to a https://ground.news/ https://ground.news/ subscription which helps me stay on top of current events going on. I've been enjoying that setup better and I am glad I am slowly where I can taking control of my attention.

DrNosferatu 4y ago

You might find this useful: NewPipe x SponsorBlock x Return YouTube Dislike - a fork of NewPipe with SponsorBlock and Return YouTube Dislike functionality. https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe

skrowl 4y ago
https://github.com/SkyTubeTeam/SkyTube https://github.com/SkyTubeTeam/SkyTube also very good for YouTube + adblock + sponsorblock

Vixel 4y ago

If ads, or more ads, are bothering you that much, you're probably using youtube a lot and should subscribe to Youtube Premium. I've cancelled all my subscriptions except this one because it is an amazing value. You wouldn't believe how much better youtube is with no ads. And youtube music is pretty good as well.

pcf 4y ago

You can just VPN into India and sign up for a family subscription to YouTube Premium. Total cost per month for six people? Just 189 INR = 2.4 USD. And remember that YouTube Premium also includes the music streaming service YouTube Music. No need for Spotify or anything else. So now I don't have to pay 10 USD per month for Spotify anymore, there aren't ads anywhere on YouTube or YouTube Music – AND I have given all of this for free to the rest of my family and some friends.

darepublic 4y ago

Begin the mass downloading

Kye 4y ago

I posted this two years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23769291 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23769291 And it keeps getting worse from the looks of it.

JohnHaugeland 4y ago

I am of the belief that these over-aggressive advertising strategies are basically saying "hey, TikTok, it's time for you to be #1" I worry that this is basically the end of YouTube

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

thdespou 4y ago

Well somehow youtube has to pay all of those video influencers their money

modshatereality 4y ago

Two things: I don't watch streams NOR do I play videos higher than 720p. Will the number of ads I see be an accurate reflection of my overall load on their system or will everyone be subjected to this 5->10 commercial barbarism? If this means I don't get ambushed by 5 ads at peak moments mid-stream (requiring me to waste time watching ad AND rewinding...), the ad count is fair reflection of user load, and the money goes to real producers instead of enriching executive quality-of-life or funding some new dystopian censorship corps, then OK.

protocontrol 4y ago

Keep shooting themselves in the foot

rco8786 4y ago
Are they? What’s the alternative?
- zarzavat 4y ago
  An adblocker. I don’t see any ads on YouTube at all.
- nuc1e0n 4y ago
  An alternative will be produced if youtube becomes a hassle to use. 30 years ago people watched television, but the ads became too numerous. Now only boomers watch it at all.
  - rco8786 4y ago
    > 30 years ago people watched television, but the ads became too numerous. Now only boomers watch it at all. The current state of streaming tv is no better than cable in terms of ads
  - ranger47 4y ago
    Nebula is trying to bill itself as an alternative, but I am not convinced it will gain the traction it needs to become what we might call a YT alternative. Users have griped about the ads on YT for years now, yet they keep using it, which just affirms that YT can inject as many ads as it wants without risking its user base. By continuing to use a product we complain about, we are giving that product permission to continue doing things we don't like.
    - JohnFen 4y ago
      I gave Nebula an honest try, but their Android app was effectively unusable for me, so I cancelled my subscription.

bradhe 4y ago

Fun fact: If you report the ad, it skips that ad and all remaining ones and goes straight to the video.

hkh28 4y ago
I found out that if you do that enough times, your account will permanently lose the ability to report ads. At least, the option is no longer present on my account.
- sshine 4y ago
  So that’s what happened! I used to report all ads as offensive, because they are.

sherman89 4y ago

Firefox + uBlock Origin = no ads. Also on mobile :)

moxieta 4y ago
anhner 4y ago
Also on Android*, unfortunately. If you want adblocking youtube on iOS I recommend using Safari with the vinegar (paid) extension. (And wipr for general adblocking) ETA: If I remember correctly, Brave Browser also has ad blocking built in. For youtube as well.
- Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
  Does iOS allow VPNs? I imagine it does. I set up a PiHole in the cloud and set it up so it requires VPN access so that nothing between my phone and the PiHole can fuck with the DNS packets. I VPN into it on my Android and get ad blocking almost* everwhere. I've also configured it to only tunnel DNS lookups, so I don't get charge egress fees for all my phone's traffic, which, granted isn't a lot, but whatever. * Sadly, it doesn't block YouTube ads, but I rarely access YouTube on my phone anyways.
- waihtis 4y ago
  A free alternative is Firefox Focus browser which adblocks by default. Problem is it nukes each session after you close it, so not very persistent
  - serbanTeodor 4y ago
    Does it allow multi tabs? I think the name 'Focus' would suggest they still not support multiple tabs opened?
  - anhner 4y ago
    I just remembered, I think I heard Brave Browser also blocks youtube ads. Will update my original comment.

nuc1e0n 4y ago

Well I'd imagine youtube's infrastructure is very expensive. I guess they can no longer pretend the service they provide for free doesn't need to be funded. What did people expect?

A-Train 4y ago
It is expensive but even then Youtube has been profitable for many years now. It represents 10% of Google revenue. 5-10 ads is a cash grab imho.
- sofixa 4y ago
  > even then Youtube has been profitable for many years now How do you know this? > It represents 10% of Google revenue. Revenue != profit. Storing zettabytes of videos across the whole world, with the massive CDNs required to be able to serve that whole world isn't cheap. I can easily see YouTube being among the most costly things Google do.
- samtheDamned 4y ago
  unless it changed recently it has never been profitable
ngokevin 4y ago
I expect they profit just fine off of the data they gather alone
mikymoothrowa 4y ago
But you would think that the company selling “targeted advertisements” wouldn’t have to show 10 ads before every video to get make profit. Profiteering off of their established position. Youtube PMs have OKRs

mcintyre1994 4y ago

I wonder if they time limit unskippable ads. I've seen some stupidly long ones, where it seems like someone has just made their hour+ long podcast recording into an ad or something.

larrik 4y ago
supposedly the entire LEGO Movie was used as a YouTube ad for its sequel...

joshvince 4y ago

> "Imagine wanting to watch a video on how to help one of your loved ones who is choking and you get 10 unskippable ads before you can watch the video." Someone pop this in a time capsule and label it "peak twitter, early 21st century"

MrGilbert 4y ago
"Darling, please call 911!" "Wait, I just found a tutorial! I just need to skip the Intro! And the personal story behind this tutorial! And todays message from their sponsor!"
quickthrower2 4y ago
Huh? Who thinks of youtube in an emergency? How about 911?
- tonmoy 4y ago
  Serious question, should I call 911 if someone is chocking and I don’t know what to do? Would the operator instruct me what to do over the phone?
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    Serious answer: yes.
  - rado 4y ago
    If 911 works with ambulances, yes.
  - JD557 4y ago
    While fortunately I never had to call 911, I'm pretty sure this should be the case. Whoever answers the phone should be ready to either give you immediate instructions (or transfer you to someone who can do that) until an ambulance/police arrives.
  - BenjiWiebe 4y ago
    Yes, you will be walked through first aid procedures while the ambulance is on the way.

simion314 4y ago

Someone will say to pay for Premium but weird thing Google(and other giants) have very limited payment methods. I do not understand why Steam,Gog, Patreon and small companies you never heard of can offer various payments methods (like PayPal) but the giants are limited to credit cards, maybe they don't want my money or they really want the credit cards? or maybe PayPal is too difficult to handle for a giant but small companies have no choice? Anyone knows?

LegitShady 4y ago
I support companies not using paypal. paypal is a terrible company with terrible policies and behaviours, and companies not offering paypal is a mark of excellence to me.
- simion314 4y ago
  I would not disagree with your PayPal opinion, but this does not explain why companies that really want to sell stuff will let me use PayPal but Google and Amazon does not, their lose, I use ad blocker for YouTube and found audiobooks on a different company that wants my money. So I am curious what Google/Amazon thinks about this (not your personal opinion about PayPal if I should not have the choice to use anything else then VISA/MasterCard)
willis936 4y ago
I use apple pay for youtube premium. Sure, that's just a mirror for a credit card, but it is an option.

coreyh14444 4y ago

Folks, just pay for YouTube Premium. In my family, between my kids and myself we watch more YouTube than Netflix/Disney+/Hulu combined so the YouTube family plan is the best value going.

tomjen3 4y ago
Thats great for you. For me, its way overpriced, considering they are not creating any of the content and it doesn't actually cover all ads.
- colejohnson66 4y ago
  > and it doesn't actually cover all ads That's not true at all. I've been paying for Premium for over a year, and I can say with certainty that I have seen zero ads placed by YouTube. The only ones I've seen are ones creators put in themselves.
  - mrguyorama 4y ago
    So it doesn't cover all ads. Sponsored content is advertising. If youtube premium doesn't result in creators making enough to support themselves then it's feeding youtube for no net gain. Any "pay for youtube directly" strategy MUST result in a creator 1) not needing to get external revenue from merch, sponsors, patreon, or anything like that. 2) not be so at the mercy of youtube algorithms and unaccountable decision trees that content match them to silence, remove their payment through "demonitization", and provide actual support to the creators so they can focus on creating instead of whipping up public shitstorms just to get basic support, and 3) reward creators for making higher quality content, instead of more addictive or "engaging" content. Right now Youtube Premium isn't that service. What is that service? Floatplane and nebula are trying to be that service. Nebula specifically has nearly every high quality, "tech, science, invention, discovery, learning etc" content creators and it's like $100 a year. All of my favorite content creators are part of it.
  - tomjen3 4y ago
    Exactly. Not all ads.

donatj 4y ago

YouTube being the primary streaming service I consume, I have been more than happy to pay for ad free YouTube Premium.

2Gkashmiri 4y ago

https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe/ https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe/ newpipe+sponsorblock. you can thank me later. on desktop, firefox+ublock origin

kornhole 4y ago

I wish that next to the thumbs up button was a support icon that allowed you to fund the creator a small amount in an easy way. The platform owner would get a percentage.

xvello 4y ago
It's actually implemented, and called "Super Thanks", with a heart icon. IIRC the creator has to enable it on their channel for the button to show up.
rchaud 4y ago
They already have that. When people livestream, there are buttons you can click to pay money: $5, $10, $20 etc. Looks really gauche and cheap, but then again so does most of the 'creator' economy.
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  That's specific to streaming though. For some reason, streaming content has all devolved to just cam sites but without any nudity. The way watchers "interact" and how the streamers are encouraged to "interact" back with whoever swings their dick the biggest because mommy's credit card has a higher limit is gross and massively ruins all streaming for me. Vinesauce has existed since before twitch, but a while back they moved onto twitch and it's been downhill ever since. It seems like you are required to aim your content more at 12 year olds if you stream, instead of a broad audience, because maybe 12 year olds are more susceptible to the weird mind game that streaming is. If you've never watched a twitch stream, just say "poggers" to yourself for two straight hours for an accurate experience.

dewey 4y ago

YouTube Premium is easily the best subscription I pay for every month. Use a VPN, set it to Argentinia, go to youtube.com/premium, sign up with your regular credit card and use without a VPN as usual from now on while paying 2 USD / month.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
hombre_fatal 4y ago
Interesting. I couldn’t pay for Premium until I was VPN’ed into the country on my credit card. It wouldn’t let me get the plan of the country I was living in.

mchesters 4y ago

This is misleading. From my experience watching Youtube on a Samsung TV, the quantity are sometimes spread across an entire video, at intervals set by the creator. I.e. 8 adverts over a 1 hour video. This is also no evidence that these adverts are not skippable. I don't like Youtube's advertising, but this tweet is very low effort.

hombre_fatal 4y ago
Unskippable ads before a video have been around for a while (no skip button). It just has been limited to a couple ads. The tweet is claiming this number has increased lately. My guess is that since unskippable ads could already be a couple minute long, they are testing with shorter ads in that timeframe while still filling up the time block. This isn’t very interesting without knowing how long the ads run.
- mchesters 4y ago
  I wasn't clear about the skippable ads: the screenshots in this tweet only include the top-left qty and timer, not the bottom right of the screen which might be showing a 'Skip Ad' button. The UI also looks exactly like Youtube on TVs, which from my experience, does this '3 of 10' for ALL adverts across an extended video. This tweet has nothing to prove what they're saying, my guess is they're trying to stir up controversy. edit: it's pretty clear that most here are more interested in sharing their dislike for ads or preferred adblocker solution, rather than even considering the legitimacy of the claims made in the tweet :(

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

atan2 4y ago

More and more, this model of "free" content that basically fills webpages with ads will fall. Most companies are realizing that ads do not work, which means we will have to start paying (actual money) for good content. And since users are going to pay from their pockets anyway, I would seriously consider moving content away from youtube and hosting my own stuff. For example, if I am going to take a course, I'd rather take it on the creator's website, where I'll have an LMS with no ads and no thumbnsils with clickbait recommendations tempting me to move away from what I am learning. Youtube is nice if I want to watch a quick video while I'm running at the gym, but it does not create a protected learning path.

regularperson26 4y ago
>which means we will have to start paying (actual money) for good content. I think both options will be available as it is now. I personally don't like the idea of paying for every particular thing that I consume. (kind of whats happening with streaming services lately) Not only because it is a hassle but also those single payments quickly add up, ultimately hurting creators.
account42 4y ago
This assumes that most content creators are paid at all right now. There is still an endless stream of content that was created just for fun and mostly its just the platforms hosting the content profiting from it.
Corrado 4y ago
Isn't this what Nebula[0] is targeting? For a low, yearly subscription you can directly support creators without having to rely on Ads. I'm pretty seriously considering subscribing to the Curiosity Stream / Nebula bundle and leaving YouTube behind completely. [0]https://nebula.app/ https://nebula.app/
rchaud 4y ago
> I would seriously consider moving content away from youtube and hosting my own stuff. Most people offering courses already do this. So instead of useful information, they post spam videos to Youtube, atop which these ads will presumably run in the future.

hooby 4y ago

Imho, the big question here is, if there's actually a trend. Was it easier, 10 years ago, to make money from a website, with just one single (non-animated) banner on top, than it is today with a website that's plastered with animated banners, link ads, and other stuff? Was it easier, 10 years ago, to make money from a video platform, with just one single skip-able ad at the start of each video - than it is today with 10 un-skip-able ads in front of each video? Was it easier to advertise your business 100 years ago, with a single poster on a street corner - than it is today with a huge ad-campaign consisting of TV-, Radio- and Newspaper-Ads? The big question to me is: Does advertising become less and less effective the more people are exposed to advertisements? Advertisers are measuring the actual effectiveness of their ads, and paying for that only. Therefore falling effectiveness means falling prices and you have to increase the quantity of ads, to earn the same money (and achieve the same effect) as before. But increased quantity means people are exposed to even more ads, which means they become even less effective. Which leads to even lower prices and even higher quantity. This can't go on forever... at some point the loss of effectiveness is going to be larger than what you can possibly make up for by increasing quantity. And there's an upper limit - you can't push quantity above 60 minutes of ads per hour. This can only end with all users either signing up for premium, leaving the service all-together, or using ad-blockers. In all three cases, the ad-business looses. Are we witnessing the slow death of (online) advertising?

tdeck 4y ago
Does anyone even remember when YouTube had no pre-roll or mid-roll ads at all, only small banner ads? That used to be the thing I liked about YouTube compared to all the other video sites.
ASalazarMX 4y ago
Advertising is immensely wasteful, and its market is already oversaturated, it has to double down each year to get the same returns of last year. Nevertheless, I think we're seeing a cycle, not its death: few ads -> excessive ads -> ad-free options -> repeat
- david38 4y ago

Overtonwindow 4y ago

I will treat it like every other advertisement that I cannot skip: mute. I just mute and look at my phone, because I will not watch ads.

bArray 4y ago

Just a little plug that I run ytoff: https://github.com/danielbarry/ytoff https://github.com/danielbarry/ytoff It needs some work, but it downloads a video locally, bypassing ads and great for offline use.

lizardactivist 4y ago

I can't even fast-forward a video without them showing more ads now. It feels like I get to watch 1 minute video between adverts now, and YouTube is nearing the point where I just don't give a damn about it anymore.

trash3 4y ago

bigtex 4y ago

I haven’t seen an ad on YouTube in ages with ublock origin.

shishy 4y ago
Yeah. I got a Smart TV recently and with the YouTube app started seeing ads again. I think I have to just stream from my laptop instead of using the apps :(. Probably better that way though, typing with the remote is terrible!
- archontes 4y ago
  You should check out SmartTube Next
- skrowl 4y ago
  https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext/ https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext/ if its Android TV
isthisthingon99 4y ago
have you considered to just pay for youtube? you can add up to 6 people in your family who can also use it and your money goes to the content creators you watch, minus youtube's cut probably. that's what I do.
- wan_ala 4y ago
- Corrado 4y ago
  Interesting... I did not know that you could share your YouTube paid status with other family members. I despise the Ads that YouTube shows me and would do almost anything to remove them from my phone, iPad, and TV. I already use a blocker for Firefox, so at least I have some respite on my computer.
  - isthisthingon99 4y ago

peanut_worm 4y ago

What happens when everyone starts using ad block? Is the advertising market just going to collapse? I don’t think even the most willing consumer would sit through 10 ads for a youtube video.

JohnFen 4y ago
We can but hope. History, however, teaches us that the ad companies will find some other sneaky and awful tactic instead.
Nextgrid 4y ago
What happens when everyone installs antivirus? Is the virus market just going to collapse? What happens when every e-mail provider has good spam filtering? Is the spam market going to collapse? Etc.
propogandist 4y ago
Google will begin crippling the technology that enables the adblocking, like the upcoming manifest v3 change.
photoGrant 4y ago
Advertising is to Ad Blocking as Viruses are to Anti Virus. One will never stop trying to outrun the other. Ever.
- peanut_worm 4y ago
  Sure but even there computer viruses have changed a lot since the 90s and 2000s. First they were purely destructive classical viruses and worms, then they shifted to extorting people with fake antiviruses and trojans, and now they are mostly ransomware. Malware is much more rare but also a lot more dangerous now. Will we see some similar shift in advertising?
kjkjadksj 4y ago
The companies making the ads are capable of hiring orders of mangnitudes more engineers than however many people volunteer to maintain adblockers. Google/youtube is already using their monopoly on the browser to prevent ad blocking via extension changes.

danrocks 4y ago

I subscribe to Youtube TV and I feel like they have been doing this in there already. It was a great service and now not only do I have to pay $65 a month for the service but also have to watch 3 3-minute advertisement blocks during a 30-min episode of Family Guy. It's starting to make cable more attractive.

Minor49er 4y ago
At that point, why not just get a copy of the series on DVD or Blu-ray? You can rip a copy to a NAS (or a flash drive if you have a smart TV with a USB port) if you would rather have a streaming experience. Copies of the show often show up in good condition at second-hand bookstores. You wouldn't have to worry about ads, the show getting rotated in or out of the cable/streaming service, could resell the copies if you don't want them anymore, and would be paying only for the shows that you want to see

endisneigh 4y ago

I don’t like ads, especially not irrelevant and excessive ones (I pay for YouTube premium), but the amount of people bragging about getting around ads is just sad. I assume most of us here have jobs. Are we ok with working for free? Many people on YouTube do it full time, with ad revenue and exposure being their primary source of income. Somehow some people have it in their heads that if the job is entertainment then it’s not worth paying for, but is simultaneously worth consuming.

eek2121 4y ago
The issue to me is cost vs benefit to creators. I do back a few of my favorite Youtubers on Patreon (actually, I pay them each more than I would pay YouTube), however, creators actually receive very little from YouTube Premium subscriptions.
- max51 4y ago
  >creators actually receive very little from YouTube Premium subscriptions. They actually receive a lot more cash for per view from YouTube premium viewers compared to free ad-supported users. And it's not even close, we're talking an order of magnitude more money per view when it's youtube premium
tomjen3 4y ago
I was at the busstop this morning. There was an ad. I turned my back to it and looked at my phone. Please tell me that I am a horrible human for defrauding the advertisers. If I could get AR glasses which automatically removes any ad before I see it, I be a bad person too?
- endisneigh 4y ago
  No, that would be fine - it’s not really the analogous situation. If the bus were “free” and you paid by spending 30 seconds watching an ad, disabling the device showing you the ad would be bad, not paying attention would be fine.

Maelcum 4y ago

Unwanted advertising is spam. Period. A lot of junk mail landed in my mailbox when I moved to a new place, until I put a red dot sticker on it. Within a week or two, they disappeared. We should implement this "red dot sticker" feature in browsers (with optional exceptions), and pages, services and whatnot should respect it, or they will be facing fines. Fines that really hurt.

hiccuphippo 4y ago
Do websites respect the DNT (Do Not Track) header? Oh wait, it seems to have been deprecated :(
revlolz 4y ago
What is a red dot sticker?
- Maelcum 4y ago
  Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/red-dot-stickers/s?k=red+dot+stickers https://www.amazon.com/red-dot-stickers/s?k=red+dot+stickers Putting one on the mailbox means "No flyers please!", at least where I live.
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    I'd never heard of that before. I wish it were a thing where I live. But at least in my apartment complex, the recycling bin is right next to the mailboxes, so I can conveniently just move the junk mail straight from my mailbox to the bin.
    - Maelcum 4y ago
      The interesting thing is that there was a sticker inside the mailbox already, but it didn't work, my mailbox was filled with junk mail, and I put them in the bins too. I guess the others don't mind the flyers and stuff, because the bins are still pretty full, every time I check my mailbox.

togs 4y ago

Should probably just pay for YT Premium. Expensive, maybe, but supports the platform. Takes money to maintain software, provide bandwidth and storage. Lots of music. Has vast library going back 15 years now. Creators can be supported (although the incentives are to make ad-friendly content, which usually disappoints) via Patreon (to incentivize content that isn't as ad-friendly). Some will feign that people will want to deal with hosting video, decentralized, at scale. They won't. Only nerds will; you and me. Nobody else cares because it's slow and less convenient (not even throwing shade, that's just a good product). Plus less and less people can afford housing so that's less people affording PCs for their housing/hosting (nobody is going to host from their laptop on coffee wifi). We can be upset about that, or we can just accept it.