Google has opened a new front in the war with ad blockers on YouTube, disabling some functions for those who don’t heed warnings.
The giant media platform just “launched a global effort” to urge those with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad free experience.
“The use of ad blockers violate YouTube’s Terms of Service,” a YouTube spokesperson told AdNews.
“Ads support a diverse ecosystem of creators globally and allow billions to access their favourite content on YouTube.”
YouTube may disable playback in cases where users continue using ad blockers despite repeated requests to allow commercials.
YouTube has also increased its monthly fee for premium YouTube, a without ads service, to $16.99 from $11.99.
Ad blocker detection is not new, and other publishers regularly ask viewers to disable ad blockers.
YouTube says its creators receive the majority of ad revenue for long form videos. In the last three years, YouTube has paid over $US50 billion to creators, artists and media companies.
Google reported September quarter advertising revenue up 9% to $59.65 billion. YouTube ad sales were 12% higher at $7.95 billion.
Author and long time vlogger Hank Green is sympathetic to an often heard complaint: “There are so many ads now."
However, thinking that Google should just fund everything because it has so much money misunderstands its primary motivation, he says.
“I have seen YouTube's new policy against ad-blockers referred to as ‘greedy’,” he says.
“But I feel like ad blockers are greedy...they're like saying, ‘You, other person, you watch ads so I don't have to’."
“Some folks also get very angry about the kinds of ads they see, which I also get. Being hit with partisan misinformation in an advertisement sucks. I hate when it happens on TV and I hate when it happens on YouTube.
“Some people have expressed frustration that YouTube posts so many ads but creators don't make very much money. We make 55% of the money generated by ads running on our videos, which is extremely important to the YouTube content ecosystem, so I wouldn't call that a good argument.”
The latest move by YouTube has seen an uptick in uninstalls of ad blocker software.
“YouTube has always been hostile to ad blockers, but lately it has stepped up its war against them,” says AdGuard.
“The Google-owned platform now displays annoying pop-ups to some users with ad blocking tools and blocks their video playback if they don’t disable them.”
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