Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

YouTube currently testing 5 to 10 unskippable ads before video starts

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–277 of 277 posts

Re: YouTube currently testing 5 to 10 unskippable ads before video starts

#271

Post by kjkjadksj »

waihtis wrote: post #42
anhner wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also on Android*, unfortunately. If you want adblocking youtube on iOS I recommend using Safari with the vinegar (paid) extension. (And wipr for general adblocking) ETA: If I remember correctly, Brave Browser also has ad blocking built in. For youtube as well.

A free alternative is Firefox Focus browser which adblocks by default. Problem is it nukes each session after you close it, so not very persistent

It also doesnt allow tabs so its super basic and hardly usable for me

Re: YouTube currently testing 5 to 10 unskippable ads before video starts

#272

Post by kjkjadksj »

peanut_worm wrote: post #104

What happens when everyone starts using ad block? Is the advertising market just going to collapse? I don’t think even the most willing consumer would sit through 10 ads for a youtube video.

The companies making the ads are capable of hiring orders of mangnitudes more engineers than however many people volunteer to maintain adblockers. Google/youtube is already using their monopoly on the browser to prevent ad blocking via extension changes.

Re: YouTube currently testing 5 to 10 unskippable ads before video starts

#273

Post by david38 »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #190
hooby wrote: post #63

Imho, the big question here is, if there's actually a trend. Was it easier, 10 years ago, to make money from a website, with just one single (non-animated) banner on top, than it is today with a website that's plastered with animated banners, link ads, and other stuff? Was it easier, 10 years ago, to make money from a video platform, with just one single skip-able ad at the start of each video - than it is today with…

Advertising is immensely wasteful, and its market is already oversaturated, it has to double down each year to get the same returns of last year. Nevertheless, I think we're seeing a cycle, not its death: few ads -> excessive ads -> ad-free options -> repeat

Many things are wasteful. Trees are wasteful. The plant world could happily live as tall grasses, but because of competition, we now have trees.

Re: YouTube currently testing 5 to 10 unskippable ads before video starts

#274

Post by not1ofU »

mrguyorama wrote: post #200
the_cramer wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. ever seen Internet historian? The ad segment is some of the best content of yt.

I'm glad he gets the creative expression but he keeps shilling raycons and mediocre VPNs. I get he has to get paid but I wish there was anyone who had the advertising money to spend on sponsorships but wasn't garbage, but I guess having that level of advertising spend kind of precludes you from spending it on product development or high quality components

its pretty clear from the way he makes those ads that hes not really endorsing them though

*edit - In my opinion

Re: YouTube currently testing 5 to 10 unskippable ads before video starts

#275

Post by togs »

Should probably just pay for YT Premium. Expensive, maybe, but supports the platform. Takes money to maintain software, provide bandwidth and storage.

Lots of music. Has vast library going back 15 years now. Creators can be supported (although the incentives are to make ad-friendly content, which usually disappoints) via Patreon (to incentivize content that isn't as ad-friendly).

Some will feign that people will want to deal with hosting video, decentralized, at scale. They won't. Only nerds will; you and me. Nobody else cares because it's slow and less convenient (not even throwing shade, that's just a good product). Plus less and less people can afford housing so that's less people affording PCs for their housing/hosting (nobody is going to host from their laptop on coffee wifi). We can be upset about that, or we can just accept it.

Re: YouTube currently testing 5 to 10 unskippable ads before video starts

#276

Post by manicdee »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #163

They won't make it so annoying that they lose substantial percentage of viewers. Hopefully not off topic: I continue to be surprised at how many of my friends don't pay for an ad-free YouTube (virtually all of them!). For about $15/month my wife and I get YouTube Music that includes ad-free (but content creators sometimes embed their own ads) YouTube. A bonus: when listening to old music from my youth, I am surprised…

It’ll be tuned to maximise for (number of remaining users clicking through ads) * (reward for each conversion) + (number of new YT Premium subscriptions) * (value of each YT Premium).

If the proportion of users leaving is lower than the proportion increase in income, YouTube wins.

Re: YouTube currently testing 5 to 10 unskippable ads before video starts

#277

Post by Handytinge »

isthisthingon99 wrote: post #259
Corrado wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting... I did not know that you could share your YouTube paid status with other family members. I despise the Ads that YouTube shows me and would do almost anything to remove them from my phone, iPad, and TV. I already use a blocker for Firefox, so at least I have some respite on my computer.

You have to create a google family to do it, but yeah that's the way to go.

The irony of feeding the advertiser rich information for the purpose of reducing ads.
Post reply on HN