Tech Desk
Aug 06, 2024
YouTube, the video-sharing platform, is taking a stand against ad blockers, and it's getting serious. It has now launched a global campaign where it is encouraging users to either enable ads or check out YouTube Premium.
What’s happening?
YouTube has announced that it's increasing its effort to ban ad blockers. One notice users of ad blockers may see is,: "Video playback is blocked unless YouTube is allowlisted or the ad blocker is disabled."
It would then ask the users to allow ads or try YouTube Premium. For some, YouTube totally blocks the videos, so users can't watch anything if they have already turned on an ad blocker.
According to YouTube, ad blockers violate the terms of its service. The video-sharing platform generates money through ads, which go to creators to help them offer free content to billions of users.
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YouTube has been trying, with increasing pressure, to shift several users to its ad-free subscription offering, YouTube Premium, by blocking ad blockers.
Moreover, this year YouTube has already had multiple changes to its ad policy. It brought unskippable 30-second ads to its TV app and tested out longer but less frequent ad breaks on TV.
The new changes are aim to drive more people into signing up for YouTube Premium.
You might be asked to turn off ad blocking in case you use an ad blocker to stream YouTube videos. Otherwise, you can have an ad-free experience by going for the YouTube Premium option which provides ad-free videos, exclusive content, and offline playback.
A recent price hike and killing of the cheaper Premium Lite plan might make the option less attractive.
