Recently, YouTube has strengthened its stance on the use of ad blockers on its platform. This development is particularly relevant for computer science students, who are not only familiar with ad blockers but also regularly access the platform to watch tutorials relevant to their studies. YouTube’s measures range from technological approaches to blocking ad blockers to adjusting the price of its premium service.
Youtube Premium and Adblocker
YouTube has stepped up its efforts to prevent users from using ad blockers. Users have been asked to disable their ad blockers in order to continue watching videos. According to YouTube’s terms of use, ad blockers are not permitted. This was also confirmed by a Google spokesperson to heise.de.(German source)
Translated freely from German: “The use of ad blockers violates the Youtube Terms of Service”, “We have launched a global campaign to encourage viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on Youtube or use Youtube Premium for an ad-free experience. Ads support a diverse ecosystem of creators around the world and enable billions of people to access their favorite content on YouTube.
heise.de (German source)
Youtube has raised the price for its Premium offer to 12.99 euros (germany) per month. Previously it was 11.99 euros. This could potentially allow YouTube to make up for the advertising revenue lost through the use of ad blockers. With a Premium, users escape advertising and also gain access to YouTube music. In addition, they can continue to enjoy YouTube videos even when their smartphone is locked. However, creative computer science students are likely to find ways to get hold of YouTube Premium at a discount, for example in countries where prices are lower. There are also several ways to bypass ad blockers. (German source) For example, for uBlock Origin, there are instructions here.
YouTube regularly experiments with different ad formats, including longer ad breaks and 30-second spots that may be skippable.
Alternative approaches for YouTube AdBlock:
While YouTube is stepping up its efforts to block ad blockers, there are also alternative approaches to bypassing advertising on the platform. One example is Fadblock, an extension for Google Chrome, which loads ads and then automatically skips or forwards them instead of blocking them.
The tightening of YouTube’s anti-ad block measures has also stimulated the development and improvement of ad blockers. Some ad blockers can still work effectively on YouTube, despite recent changes in the company’s anti-ad block strategy5.
- Daniel