YouTube is going to ensure that fewer and fewer people worldwide use an adblocker on its platform. The company announced new measures to put an end to this.
The new measures should push users to settle for ads in videos or persuade them to get a YouTube Premium subscription. To be fair, I think that’s secretly quite a dirty trick.
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YouTube fights adblockers worldwide
‘Adblockers violate YouTube’s terms of use,’ is a message you may soon come across regularly. Not in a small bar on the website, but completely in the screen where the video is supposed to play. A video blocker, in other words.
It is one of the measures YouTube is going to take worldwide in the fight against adblockers. Although the plan does not seem to be entirely clear yet, as there are different users with different experiences.
Some get blocked every time, while others can still watch the video with warnings on screen.
This is not new, as YouTube has been doing similar experiments since June this year. Although back then it was a small test and the platform is now rolling out the measures to a larger audience.
(Image: YouTube)
A dirty trick?
Let me start by saying that using an adblocker, officially speaking, is not okay. Anyone using a platform like YouTube should essentially be content with that platform’s rules. So yes, I get that YouTube wants you to watch ads or take out a Premium subscription. Fair enough.
Although I personally think there is something to be said about using an adblocker. Where we used to deal with ads of 10 seconds at most, YouTube now throws two 30-second ads against the beginning of the video. And then the video is also frequently interrupted by those same ads.
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Personally, I have been using a Premium subscription for some time, but I am not very satisfied with that either. Indeed, YouTube recently took away the option to watch ad-free only and expects consumers to take out a $15.99 per month subscription.
Armed with YouTube Music and all sorts of other features (such as offline viewing), that’s obviously a fine choice, but it’s a hefty amount. Especially for young users who simply don’t have a whole lot to spend.
Taking away that subscription, increasing the number of long ads on videos ánd countering adblockers feels a bit like a middle finger. As wrong as those adblockers may be.
