YouTube wants to make it harder for people to use adblockers by getting more active.
The Verge says that the company is “running a small experiment around the world that asks people with ad blockers to turn them off or try YouTube Premium.”
People started seeing a new prompt that said YouTube could stop playing videos if ad-blocking tools were used too often. This led to the statement.
Oluwa Falodun, a Google spokesperson, said in an email to The Verge, “Ad blocker detection isn’t new, and other publishers often ask viewers to turn off ad blockers.”
“We take turning off playback very seriously, and we’ll only do it if a viewer ignores repeated calls to let YouTube ads play. “If a viewer thinks they were wrongly flagged as using an ad blocker, they can click on the link in the prompt to let us know,” Oluwa said.
These changes show that YouTube is getting tougher on ad blockers. It says this is because all of those ads are necessary for creators to get paid for their work and for the site to stay free. “YouTube’s ad-supported model supports a diverse ecosystem of creators and gives free access to content to billions of people around the world through ads,” the company said in a statement.
YouTube Premium costs USD 11.99 per month or USD 119.99 per year and gets rid of ads on the service as well as giving you offline files and YouTube Music Premium. Last November, the company said that between YouTube Premium and YouTube Music, it had more than 80 million users.
