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I strongly agree, and it frustrates me when people and companies claim that advertising their own products "doesn't count." I cancelled my YouTube Premium plan

• sbarre 5d ago
  I mean, the stuff that's in the video is not really under Google's control. Are you suggesting that the burden should be on channel owners to upload variations of their videos that don't include sponsor blocks? That's a bit onerous. My commercial agreement is with YouTube, not with the video creator. If you don't like ads from creators, don't watch those channels? YT Premium does provide the "skip ahead" functionality that almost always jumps over sponsor blocks. I will say I've been a YT Premium subscriber for years and I've never seen any ads for other Google services in my feed, and I don't get advert emails either.
  • cwillu 5d ago
    If google can't provide an ad-free product, they shouldn't be selling an ad-free product.
  • Gareth321 5d ago
    > I mean, the stuff that's in the video is not really under Google's control. It is completely within Google's control. They have a hundred pages of terms of services, dictating everything the content creators may and may not do and say, down to individual words, symbols, and opinions. If Google wanted to, they could tell content creators to stop adding sponsorships. I understand you'd make less money. > If you don't like ads from creators, don't watch those channels? I stopped paying YouTube and I use SponsorBlock now. You're not entitled to my time or attention or money. The problem is ultimately that Google advertises an ad free experience, which it's not. I'd be willing to pay for an ad free experience.
    • sbarre 5d ago
      > You're not entitled to my time or attention or money. Ahhh but you're entitled to someone else's hard work in producing the content you watch, and god forbid they'd be entitled to compensation for that work.. Got it.. Rules for me, not for thee..
  • thesuitonym 5d ago
    All creators that are on Nebula already upload sponsor-free versions there.
    • whatevaa 5d ago
      Nebula is mostly irrelevant. Even Nebulas creators wouldn't survive without youtube revenue.
      • thesuitonym 5d ago
        Maybe so, the point is there is a non-zero number of creators who already do sbarre thinks is too onerous.
  • notpushkin 5d ago
    > Are you suggesting that the burden should be on channel owners to upload variations of their videos that don't include sponsor blocks? No, just mark the sponsored segments, so YouTube can skip over (like SponsorBlock does). And they already pay more per view from Premium users vs ad-supported ones, so it just makes sense to skip ads in the video as well. That being said, I think paying creators directly is more sustainable in the long term.
• carlosjobim 5d ago
  YouTube Premium now has integrated sponsor block. At least that's something. And any ads underneath a video is at least not shown in the Roku YouTube player, nor are ad overlays as far as I know, since I've never seen one.
  • Gareth321 5d ago
    It helps but I understand that it's not automatic. Is that correct? If so it significantly undermines the functionality. SponesorBlock automatically removes ads. Meaning I don't have to scramble to open my phone or find the remote every time I don't want to hear/see an ad. That opt-out UX likely means most people ultimately watch the sponsored content. It could be that this is a phased approach so as not to anger their creators too much.
    • carlosjobim 5d ago
      For me personally it is as easy as pressing one button on the remote. But I don't put on videos in the background very often. Worth noting is that there are thousands of high quality YouTube channels without any sponsored content. So those are effectively completely ad free with Premium.
• ApolloFortyNine 5d ago
  >* Ads underneath videos for products from the channel owner. > >* Sponsorships within videos from the channel owner. I actually agree this is a bit annoying, but also the alternative is Google banning Youtubers from finding their own advertising partners, which I'm sure people would hate.
  • layer8 5d ago
    More importantly, it would lead to more “product placement” and other underhanded product/brand promotions. And the real annoyance with YouTube Premium is that the UI is still full of engagement dark patterns.
    • RugnirViking 5d ago
      no it wouldn't, such things are straight up illegal in most places? You have to clearly disclose ads + have clear distinction between ad content and rest of content. A bunch of youtubers have gotten in trouble for this?
  • Gareth321 5d ago
    I'm sure content creators would hate it because they would make less money. Billions of YouTube users around the world would be very happy. To be clear, I'm not opposed to the practise, as long as that's clear up front. YouTube advertises Premium as an ad free experience, and in reality it's full of ads.
    • jdb9001 5d ago
      Do they not have a little sponsor skip thing? Where like if many people skip a segment, itll pop up like hey, wanna skip? I mean, thats about all they can do besides forcing youtubers to disclose exact segment lengths which would concretely hurt them whereas this provides a little sort of breathing room, or just straight up ban them, both of which would dramatically hurt the platform.
      • Gareth321 5d ago
• loloquwowndueo 5d ago
  Pro tip. Ublock origin gets you that mostly ad-free experience you were hoping for. Donate the money you save from the YouTube premium sub to ublock origin instead.
  • Gareth321 5d ago
    Thanks! It's great on Mac/PC but sadly it doesn't work on iPhone, Android TV and Apple TV. I have solutions for those now too.
    • bink 5d ago
      Mind sharing them with the rest of the class?
  • dormento 5d ago
    Also, SponsorBlock. Can't recommend it enough. It even works on """smart""" TVs if you're controlling youtube from your phone.
    • thesuitonym 5d ago
      uBlock Origin + SponsorBlock is the only way YouTube is even remotely watchable these days. Even still, it's not really worth it. I frequently find it better to spend my time doing anything else.
      • dleslie 5d ago
        It's mostly AI generated drivel on their home page now.
    • piltdownman 5d ago
      Is there a viable solution for YouTube on a Google TV nowadays? They've started doing 60 second ads which are absolutely egregious.
      • 5d ago
• hdgvhicv 5d ago
  I don’t mind the in video sponsors. Some are good (ok map men ones are good), but crucially it’s not really something YouTube could directly block. They could put terms and conditions in place, but you’re driving product placement and it becomes a slippery slope. Howver recently I’ve noticed adverts for “membership” for channels, and that is getting me close to picking my youtube habit. Same with Spotify and advertising concerts, but that seems to have gone away for me after I complained. Sadly even the bbc does adverts on iPlayer. You used to be able to instantly skip them, but then in a big (internal) fanfare some idiot decided they could make them not skippable and increase some metrics and then get a promotion.
  • kmeisthax 5d ago
    YouTube actually does block sponsor spots in videos if you have Premium. They call it "Skip Ahead" and don't really talk about sponsor spots, but practically speaking it's 9/10 just the "skip sponsor segment" button. I remember about 10-15 years ago YouTube actually did try to ban sponsor spots in videos, but the backlash from creators was strong enough that they walked that back to "ok well we'll allow sponsor spots but you can't just insert the sponsor's own ad, it's gotta be your ad read and B-roll".
    • elondaits 5d ago
      Most of the UI features that YT added over the last few years can be thought of as a way to skip sponsor ads. e.g., thumbnail previews on the seek bar, the little histogram on the seek bar, auto-chapter detection, and playing at 2x when you click and hold on the video.
    • hhh 5d ago
      that's not blocking though. It's allowing you to skip over the areas people commonly skip in videos where they take the data from everyone. I get them at sponsor slots of course, but also intros often. Because it's not removing it entirely, I would not consider that blocking.
      • SllX 5d ago
• websap 5d ago
  I'd pay $20 / month for a Youtube subscription with no ads or sponsored content. Unfortunately even with sideloading on iOS there's no alternative live youtube vanced.
  • DANmode 5d ago
    Brave seemingly blocks YouTube ads on iOS.
• nephihaha 5d ago
  Sponsorship within videos at least gives money to the uploader. YouTube has forced that by demonetising videos or paying peanuts.
• ipaddr 5d ago
  That's like complaining you purchased netflix subscriptiomn without ads and saw a product placement ad in a movie. I guess you want netflix to not show the movie, start cutting up the movie or ask that the movie be remade without any products.
  • lucaspm98 5d ago
    YouTube sponsor segments are not subtle “place a Coke can facing the camera” integrations. They are dedicated ad segments with scripted (typically by the advertiser) promotions, often entirely unrelated to the video or channel. To the end user they are indistinguishable from other video ads on the platform except the ad read is often (not always) done by the creator. I don’t have hard data on the ratio but it’s not uncommon for a 10 minute video to have 1-2 minutes of full-interrupt ad segments embedded in the video.
• natebc 5d ago
  [dead]
• jonhohle 5d ago
  I worked on Prime during the rollout of Prime Video and shortly after (maybe a year or so) pre-roll for other Prime Video content was inserted. I brought it up in a meeting with our org (but the Amazon Video team wasn’t present) and one of our business guys shrugged it off as not interrupting content, blah, blah, blah. I said the agreement was ad-free content, not uninterrupted content. The conversation stopped and nothing was done. I worked on backend subscription management and the implementation of benefits. The team that business guy worked on was the group eventually at the center of the predatory subscription issue (I can’t say whether they were still around when that happened or not).
  • sanex 5d ago
    Cheap corporate sellouts are the problem with every big company.
• redanddead 5d ago
  What sucks is it’s never enough It always gets more expensive for a lesser enshittified version, removed/fucked with features to keep a bloated product team employed
• jasonlotito 5d ago
  And then on the flip side you have people who won't blink an eye with Apple doing it. Shame, really.
• pbasista 5d ago
  > I cancelled my YouTube Premium plan because of ads. That would make a great title for a write-up of your experience.
• jtbayly 5d ago
  I cancelled my Spotify subscription when they wouldn’t stop trying to advertise podcasts to me.
• bearcobra 5d ago
  "Ad free" meaning we do not insert ads seems like a reasonable standard to me. The alternative of policing creator content is kind of untenable since it destroys the economics for the creators and there's so much grey area.