YouTube is looking to take a more aggressive approach to discourage people from using adblockers.
As per The Verge, the company is running “a small experiment globally that urges viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium.” The statement comes after some people began noticing a new prompt warning that video playback could be cut off if YouTube detects repeated use of ad blocking tools.
Speaking to The Verge over email, Google spokesperson Oluwa Falodun said, “Ad blocker detection is not new, and other publishers regularly ask viewers to disable ad blockers.”
“We take disabling playback very seriously, and will only disable playback if viewers ignore repeated requests to allow ads on YouTube. In cases when viewers feel they have been falsely flagged as using an ad blocker, they can share this feedback by clicking on the link in the prompt,” Oluwa said.
These measures indicate that YouTube is hardening its stance against ad blockers, and it’s justifying the move by saying all of those ad spots are critical for creators to be compensated for their content — and for the platform to remain free. “YouTube’s ad-supported model supports a diverse ecosystem of creators, and provides billions of people globally access to content for free with ads,” the company’s statement said.
YouTube Premium removes ads from the service (and includes other benefits like offline downloads and YouTube Music Premium) for the price of USD 11.99 per month or USD 119.99 annually. Last November, the company announced that it surpassed 80 million combined subscribers across YouTube Premium and YouTube Music.