YouTube is still fighting a losing battle against ad blockers and is now concentrating on products that allow for ad-free mobile viewing. The video platform, which is owned by Google, has said that it is going to intensify its efforts to enforce its Terms of Service against third-party apps that breach them, with a particular focus on ad-blocking programs. It’s about apps for smartphones that let you watch videos without commercial interruptions. Use of such an application may result in buffering problems or display of the error message “The following content is not available on this app.”
Third-party apps are not permitted to disable advertisements, according to the service’s conditions, “because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership.” YouTube advises registering for a Premium subscription if you wish to view without advertisements, just as it has been doing for the previous few months when it began taking action against ad blockers. The cost of YouTube Premium is $14 per month.
Back in November, YouTube told us that it “launched a global effort to urge viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad free experience.” It started by showing pop-ups whenever an ad blocker is in use telling you that it’s against the website’s TOS. Soon after that, you could only play up to three videos with an ad blocker on before you can no longer load any. Google also later admitted that if you have an ad blocker installed, you “may experience suboptimal viewing,” such as having to wait a longer period before a video loads.
