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YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

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Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#581

YouTube premium perfectly showcases why ads dominate the internet, because even when there is a paid option for a service much cheaper than any alternative, people do not want to pay (And I am not talking about too broke to pay cases). Serving an infinite video catalog is very expensive in terms of all resources (And yes Netflix is not comparable, unlike YouTube, Netflix can highly leverage cache boxes at ISPs). Vime…

YouTube premium costs in Germany €15,99, which is more than Disney+ and AppleTV+ combined. I personally just don’t see the value in paying so much for it, considering all the other subscriptions that we have.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#583

YouTube premium perfectly showcases why ads dominate the internet, because even when there is a paid option for a service much cheaper than any alternative, people do not want to pay (And I am not talking about too broke to pay cases). Serving an infinite video catalog is very expensive in terms of all resources (And yes Netflix is not comparable, unlike YouTube, Netflix can highly leverage cache boxes at ISPs). Vime…

> YouTube premium perfectly showcases why ads dominate the internet, because even when there is a paid option for a service much cheaper than any alternative, people do not want to pay There's also a factor of quality and trust. I don't trust YouTube Premium enough to even try it. This is mostly colored by their constant, invasive disruption of my YouTube experience (particularly apparent on mobile) with YT Premium a…

YouTube Premium is my #1 favorite subscription. YouTube is unusable without it. I also get immense value from YouTube. It's really a win-win in my book.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because even when there is a paid option for a service much cheaper than any alternative, people do not want to pay People don't want to pay for half-baked products: - Workspace accounts don't work - Even with standard accounts, it won't work on many devices (eg. TV apps), so you still get ads even as you paid - As Google regularly kills people's account, it also means most of us have multiple Youtube accounts that…

> People don't want to pay for half-baked products: This is disingenuous, to be blunt. People do not block youtube ads because workspace accounts don't work or because Google kills off niche products or that people lose youtube accounts when switching devices. Switching profiles is already considered an inconvenience, due to the way the algorithms tailor so well, regardless of how often you may engage in it.

> Switching profiles is already considered an inconvenience, due to the way the algorithms tailor so well, regardless of how often you may engage in it.

The dealbreaker for me with YouTube Premium is that I'd have to sign into YouTube. And I'd need uBlock Origin anyway to block all the suggested video divs...

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#585
I'd happily pay 5€ per month for YouTube premium just to get rid of the ads, but (at least in Germany) you also get YouTube music, so it's 16€. I don't understand this pricing at all. They're excluding all potential customers that already have a Spotity or Apple Music subscription - becaus who want's to pay twice for the same content?

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#586
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

people are paying for the content with patreon, bypassing YouTube entirely. Why cant YouTube figure out how to get that money people are clearly willing to part with? Why blame the users for YouTube failure?

Isn't YouTube already doing that with channel memberships? I think people can also pay to comment on live streams or something.. They're definitely already letting you support creators directly, while taking their cut of course.

Yup. The livestream version is a "super chat" (or "super sticker" is an option), but even regular videos can turn on "super thanks" which let viewers donate and leave a comment. In any case, youtube takes 30%, so many streamers try to push to a third party option that takes a much lower fee. And the "and leave a comment" turns people off that option I'm sure, it'd be nice if they made it optional and just let you pseudo-anonymously support someone's video. Most people won't realize you can delete the comment right after making it and the channel still gets your money (not sure if the channel can still see the comment contents if any/account that did it). There's also "gifted memberships" which like memberships themselves is another feature lifted directly from Twitch. Given youtube's catch-up stance (Twitch also makes it difficult to use adblock) it's not hard to call them "failing" at monetizing; there are many interesting A/B experiments that could be done that they are not doing. (I think gifted memberships is no longer an A/B test feature but standard by now... so they do them sometimes, but not enough.) Part of it is also probably just Google culture; if something is "only" going to net them a few million in profit, it's not worth doing.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#587
post #585

I'd happily pay 5€ per month for YouTube premium just to get rid of the ads, but (at least in Germany) you also get YouTube music, so it's 16€. I don't understand this pricing at all. They're excluding all potential customers that already have a Spotity or Apple Music subscription - becaus who want's to pay twice for the same content?

Their pricing takes into account that not all users use both sides of the subscription.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#588
I would have bought premium years ago if the free version lets you play in background when on mobile. This attitude of going out of your way to cripple EXTREMELY basic feature to get me to pay premium didn't sit well with me.

Asking me to pay for the ability to have background play to me is akin to opening a restaurant and serving unsalted food and asking 2% extra for salt in the food.

I already pay for a few other google services (google one, google cloud etc) and their customer service (that I have needed on the rare occasion) is ..... almost non existent as well.

Will most probably use alternate frontends or a pihole or whatever other alternative there is for as long as I can.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#589

YouTube premium perfectly showcases why ads dominate the internet, because even when there is a paid option for a service much cheaper than any alternative, people do not want to pay (And I am not talking about too broke to pay cases). Serving an infinite video catalog is very expensive in terms of all resources (And yes Netflix is not comparable, unlike YouTube, Netflix can highly leverage cache boxes at ISPs). Vime…

I've said it before and I've said it again: ad-based content and pay content are incompatible business models. YouTube Premium fails because the content isn't worth paying for. The content is not worth paying for because it's been designed from the ground up to sell ads . When a website designed to sell ads fails to sell content, that's not evidence that selling content doesn't work, it's evidence that selling conten…

YouTube Premium is the best thing I pay for each month (I actually don't pay for it it's included with Pixel Pass). It a little more than Apple Music and Spotify and you get that included into YouTube premium. YouTube has the largest music library out of any music streaming service. If you watch YouTube on a TV, YouTube premium is a must.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#590
post #514

YouTube premium perfectly showcases why ads dominate the internet, because even when there is a paid option for a service much cheaper than any alternative, people do not want to pay (And I am not talking about too broke to pay cases). Serving an infinite video catalog is very expensive in terms of all resources (And yes Netflix is not comparable, unlike YouTube, Netflix can highly leverage cache boxes at ISPs). Vime…

No, it perfectly showcases that people do not want to pay 1000% more money for the privilege of paying a monthly subscription. Youtube Premium costs $12/month [1]. Ads average something like $2 per 1000 views to the creators (in some of the most common categories) [2]. Youtube takes a ~45% cut, so Youtube makes ~$4 per 1000 views from ads. So, to reach $12/month, you would need to average 3000 views per month. At a a…

Giving them my card data feels more expensive than $12/month. The model of paying to remove ads always felt like hostage taking.

"Is this ad annoying enough for you? No? You think you're a tough guy? Here's an advert of me slicing off your toes. Now tell me your home address so I can mail them to you. Read me the CVV2 numbers from the back of the card to make it stop!"

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