The YouTube platform has decided to win over ad blockers once and for all and has started a fight against the use of add-ons, extensions and programs that prevent it from displaying ads users worldwide.
“Using ad blockers violates the terms YouTube services,” a YouTube spokesperson said. “We’ve launched a global effort to encourage viewers with ad blockers to enable ads or try YouTube Premium, which is ad-free. Ads support creators around the world and enable billions of people to access their favorite content on YouTube.”
YouTube has taken up the fight against the use of blockers already at the beginning of this year. First, it showed users pop-ups warning them that this behavior was against the site’s terms of use, and then placed a timer on those notices to make sure people read them. In June, the platform decided to more aggressive approach and warned viewers that they would not be able to play more than three videos unless they turned off their ad blockers. It was a smaller experiment to get users to allow ads or try YouTube Premium, which the site has now extended to its entire user base.
It is no surprise that users are with this development dissatisfaction and on social networks such as Reddit, they have been commenting on this topic for some time now. Moreover, it seems that the only way to continue watching videos without ads is paying for a YouTube Premium subscription. Notifications that viewers receive, namely a prepaid service heavily promoted. “Ads keep YouTube free for billions of users around the world,” it says. And according to him, thanks to YouTube Premium creators they can still receive money from the subscription.
Website in July increased the prices of the Premium service to $14 per month from the previous $12 (in the Czech Republic, users will now pay CZK 179 per month for an individual subscription). YouTube Premium also allows users to access to offline viewing, background playback and higher quality 1080p streamingbut for those who just want to watch videos without ads, there is a price relatively high. The platform previously offered a more affordable variant called Premium Lite in some European regions, which cost only 7 euros per month and only offered the removal of ads from videos. However, this option was canceled at the end of October.
Source: engadget.com
