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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

#661
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…

Youtube premium also includes other features, such as ability to download videos to view offline (e.g. flights).

But I also feel like you have an incorrect unstated assumption: People are not perfectly rational. The difference between paying $0 and paying $1 is ENORMOUSLY bigger than the difference between paying $1 and $12.

C.f. people will spend hours finding the perfect app that is also free, instead of just paying $2 for the perfect app they found after 2min. It doesn't make any sense.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>YouTube Premium fails because the content isn't worth paying for. I beg to differ. As a hobbyist type, and also someone interested in semi trashy niche content (true crime), having access to a virtually unlimited catalogue of fresh content, a lot of it exceptionally good quality, makes it absolutely worth the money. If I could have any one subscription, it would be YouTube 10 times out of 10. And as someone who abho…

If Youtube Premium actually blocked all the ads (including sponsored content), then I would pay for it. But it doesn't, so I have to use Sponsor Block anyway. Why pay for something that won't get the job done?

Sponsored content isn't controlled by YouTube though, it's controlled by the creator

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#664

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

Absolutly wrong. I pay for spotify to not have ads, I pay for netflix despite the fact I can download torrents because of the benefit of the service. Hell, I pay for Telegram premium and chatgpt, both of which have very good free offer without ads!

But GAFAMS have exhausted our trust, so they don't get the same treatment.

I will never pay for a Google service, because that would mean having a google account tie to a payment system. And Google spies, collect data, close accounts and services on a whim and has terrible support.

It doesn't respect their customers, and so they lost our will to give them money.

Plus, even if you pay, you have no way to know if they are going to respect their own contract anymore because they don't care and have no consequence for messing up.

You pay for an amazon product? Can be a scam and amazon will not prevent that. You pay for twitter blue to see less ads? We just learned this month tweeter blue users say exactly as many ads as regular users.

> So what is the alternative?

We don't want an alternative. Those companies made billions with their short term abusing policies, now they finally pay some price.

Good.

For once the market is behaving as a regulating force as it should, which is not often nowadays.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#665

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with YT is: - I start the video, an ad is shown within 30 secs. - I fast forward a few minutes, the SAME ad is shown again. - I jump to anywhere on the timeline, the SAME ad is shown again. At least show me something that is relevant, like facebook does. The ads there reflect what I usually look for. On YT, none of the ads are relevant to me, ever. It's just ridiculous.

At least for YT there's a solution: YT Premium. Sure, as other comments have said, it doesn't scale to all websites, but youtube isn't just any website.

Does YT Premium block the sponsored ad slots? Because if not, that's a pointless product.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#666

It is not just about youtube. The whole internet is bloated with ads right now, and the vast majority of them quite the opposite of discrete. I just cannot browse the internet without adblocker, it is too slow, but more importantly too distracting. I could count the times that I have found an internet ad interesting in my lifetime using half the fingers of one hand. Personalised or not, the vast majority is useless,…

The problem with YT is: - I start the video, an ad is shown within 30 secs. - I fast forward a few minutes, the SAME ad is shown again. - I jump to anywhere on the timeline, the SAME ad is shown again. At least show me something that is relevant, like facebook does. The ads there reflect what I usually look for. On YT, none of the ads are relevant to me, ever. It's just ridiculous.

At least for YT there's a solution: YT Vanced

Or other YouTube clients with ads disabled :) There is even a SmartTV YouTube App that works like a charm. It even skips as blocks in the video itself. Only casting then uses the original app with ads.

Edit:// as long as I would need 2 premium accounts for all my active devices I don't accept that as a real solution

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#667

It is not just about youtube. The whole internet is bloated with ads right now, and the vast majority of them quite the opposite of discrete. I just cannot browse the internet without adblocker, it is too slow, but more importantly too distracting. I could count the times that I have found an internet ad interesting in my lifetime using half the fingers of one hand. Personalised or not, the vast majority is useless,…

I totally agree on this! Some websites just keep throwing an enormous number of ads into your face to the the extent you start losing consciousness why you came here in the first place. On computer, you still able to use an AdBlock but on mobile, I suffer terribly, not only because I could not disable ads but because on some sites while you are reading an article a random ad video that took about half of the screen k…

uBlock origin works perfectly with Firefox on mobile, just in case you didn't know.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#668
I stopped listening to the radio because of ads. There are podcast I don't listen to anymore because sponsors are so invasive. I installed sponsor block (which I would gladly pay for) to may youtube bearable. I pay for spotify for peace of mind.

I love youtube, but If I can't watch it without being pestered by ads and without giving all my information to google, I will simply do something else.

I would be ok paying for youtube premium if Google were actually not abusing their customers at any chance they get. But since they will spy on you, delete your accounts, cancel services, encourage take down abuses, I really don't want to put my whole life in their hand.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#669
Ads, the way are made today, totally destroy the experience, therefore I'm prepared to say good riddance to YT. Also, good luck with that; this will only mean that once there is enough demand, a video will be downloaded and shared through bittorrent.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#670
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…

It's not only about the markup imo. I share netflix and all with my girlfriend in the same household. But for YouTube we both need our own premium because of the weird limits. More than that I would likely need 2 for me alone because of the limits. Even more because I organized my abos in different accounts.

I would buy one, but I won't buy 3. And I won't buy even 1 when I still have ads every so often.

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