YouTube is getting more serious about its approach to people using ad-blocking software. The video platform has “launched a global effort” to encourage people to either allow ads or subscribe to YouTube Premium, according to the company’s communications manager, Christopher Lawton. “Using ad-blocking software on YouTube violates our terms of service and hurts creators who work so hard to produce videos for millions of viewers around the world,” he said. “Blocking ads also takes away resources that help to fund content, such as the unskippable ads we recently introduced or our subscription tiers.”
The YouTube app has been prompting people to turn off their ad-blocking software for quite some time now, though some people have managed to circumvent this by simply adding an extra dot to the end of their browser address when visiting the site. This trick, documented initially on Reddit in June and has gone viral, is a workaround that appears to be still working at the time of writing.
But now the Google-owned company is getting more aggressive in getting people to turn off their ad-blocking tools, warning them that they’re violating YouTube’s terms of service and may be blocked from watching in the future. A countdown timer was previously launched and has now been paired with a three-strike system that will eventually stop people from viewing YouTube content altogether.
This crackdown on ad-blocking software follows other recent moves by YouTube to try and get people to pay for its premium service. The company has increased the number of unskippable ads on YouTube TV and is experimenting with longer but less frequent ads on its mobile app. And last month, it killed off its lower-priced ad-free service called Premium Lite in Europe.
YouTube argues its premium service is a better alternative to streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. It offers a wide selection of movies and television shows and original content from some of the most popular YouTube creators, such as Lilly Singh and Rooster Teeth. The service also allows people to watch videos offline on their phones and tablets, something that is important for commutes and other situations when they can’t be watching in front of a computer screen.
And it’s a feature that will soon be available for even more devices as YouTube Premium is coming to smart televisions. It will also let people pick up where they left off on any device, meaning that if they start a video on their desktop and then switch to their phone or tablet, they can continue the same clip without missing anything.
However, the cost of a subscription is a deterrent for many people, especially as it requires payment on both the Android and iOS apps as well as on YouTube TV. YouTube Premium costs $19.99 monthly in the US and €17.99 in Europe.