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YouTube has become horrible experience practically unwatchable unless you pay for the monthly Premium service. And this is coming from me a person who grew up w

YouTube has become horrible experience practically unwatchable unless you pay for the monthly Premium service. And this is coming from me a person who grew up watching TV stuffed with ads. I can't imagine with young people who never watched TV think of bare non-premium YouTube. Non-premium YouTube is just an ad machine that happens to show some video content between ads. It used to be the opposite of that.

crazygringo 4y ago
I don't know what you mean. If I watch a 9-minute clip, I get 2 ads at the top but can skip them after the first 5 seconds of the first ad. And then there's often a 15-second unskippable commercial in the middle. So about 4% ads. Sometimes there's a single first unskippable 15-second ad instead, so about 5% ads. (And the ratio seems roughly the same with shorter videos, as they don't have the ad in the middle and sometimes skip the intro ad altogether when watched in succession.) While network TV is 8 minutes of ads in a 30 min slot, or 27% ads. So about 5x as much ad time. If YouTube started implementing unskippable ad segments that were multiple minutes long then there would be a comparison. But in my experience, YouTube is miles better than network TV ever has been in our lifetimes.
- Y_Y 4y ago
  That 27% rate would be illegally high in most countries. Not to mention the many places which have high-quality public broadcasters with few or no ads. That said network TV isn't necessarily a great comparison. For me I'm most likely to compare with YouTube of the past, very similar content, but no ads. Or YouTube with adblock or third-party android apps.
  - crazygringo 4y ago
    Well the parent commenter was talking about network TV (and basic cable isn't any different) and YouTube is an American company. So that's great if 27% ad time is illegal in some other countries, but I guess they either make it up with mandatory fees (like in the UK) or have lower budget programming.
    - Y_Y 4y ago
      Bad guess, try again
pb7 4y ago
So pay for premium then. It costs a lot of money to run, why do you feel entitled to get it for free with nothing monetizing it?
- dghughes 4y ago
  I do pay for premium and get YouTube Music with it too. And I don't feel entitled to get it free never said or implied that.

crazygringo 4y ago

I don't know what you mean. If I watch a 9-minute clip, I get 2 ads at the top but can skip them after the first 5 seconds of the first ad. And then there's often a 15-second unskippable commercial in the middle. So about 4% ads. Sometimes there's a single first unskippable 15-second ad instead, so about 5% ads. (And the ratio seems roughly the same with shorter videos, as they don't have the ad in the middle and sometimes skip the intro ad altogether when watched in succession.) While network TV is 8 minutes of ads in a 30 min slot, or 27% ads. So about 5x as much ad time. If YouTube started implementing unskippable ad segments that were multiple minutes long then there would be a comparison. But in my experience, YouTube is miles better than network TV ever has been in our lifetimes.

Y_Y 4y ago
That 27% rate would be illegally high in most countries. Not to mention the many places which have high-quality public broadcasters with few or no ads. That said network TV isn't necessarily a great comparison. For me I'm most likely to compare with YouTube of the past, very similar content, but no ads. Or YouTube with adblock or third-party android apps.
- crazygringo 4y ago
  Well the parent commenter was talking about network TV (and basic cable isn't any different) and YouTube is an American company. So that's great if 27% ad time is illegal in some other countries, but I guess they either make it up with mandatory fees (like in the UK) or have lower budget programming.
  - Y_Y 4y ago
    Bad guess, try again

pb7 4y ago

So pay for premium then. It costs a lot of money to run, why do you feel entitled to get it for free with nothing monetizing it?

dghughes 4y ago
I do pay for premium and get YouTube Music with it too. And I don't feel entitled to get it free never said or implied that.