from Hacker News

YouTube Blocks Ad Blockers Amid Declining Ad Revenue

by neverminder on 6/11/23, 1:34 AM with 30 comments

  • by briHass on 6/11/23, 2:45 AM

    I admit to being a bit of a YT addict, but this would be the end of watching YT for me. Whenever I watch YT on the Android app, I'm absolutely appalled at the frequency, duration, and low-quality of the ads. Often, a 30s-1 min video will have up to 20 seconds of unskippable ads. Ads frequently interrupt the content, and they are especially bad for videos that aren't 'demonitized' due to controversial content.

    I've actually just closed the Android app instead of waiting to watch the video. Whatever dopamine kick I had from an intriguing thumbnail/title is lost well before the ad can finish.

    Maybe I shouldn't complain. It's like how making smoking more difficult actually did result in lower rates of smoking.

  • by staunton on 6/11/23, 2:49 AM

    It's only a matter of time before adds are embedded directly into the video stream. Then addbock will have to recognize when an add is being played and maybe mute/blackout the video. If lots of people use that kind of addblock (I'm not sure they will), it will lead to an arms race making content and adds blend and mix until there is a continuum from content through product placement to adds.

    Content creators already get paid for littering their content with adds. Right now, these portions are usually easy to notice and sponsoring is usually disclosed (except product placement). However, it's not a given this keeps being the case.

    I expect the fact that addblock ever worked on YouTube and just skipped adds will seem crazy to people in a decade.

  • by FounderBurr on 6/11/23, 8:47 AM

    Nobody wants YouTube “shorts”, it’s a colossal mistake for them to prioritize that. It’s eBay wanting to be Amazon so bad they failed at being ebay.

  • by kalleboo on 6/11/23, 3:53 AM

    Ad revenue seems to be down hard all over the place - several of the podcasts I listen to are basically begging on air for advertising with some ad spots replaced with "this episode sponsored by our patrons" type segments.

  • by jsheard on 6/11/23, 1:58 AM

    They are also beginning to paywall video quality behind YouTube Premium

    https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/10/23677141/youtube-premium-...