The YouTube administration continues its war against ad blockers and this time strikes at tools that allow you to watch videos on mobile devices without displaying ads.
The service has announced that it is «strengthening [its] measures against third-party applications that violate» its Terms of Use, «in particular, applications that block ads». We are talking about mobile applications that allow you to watch videos without interruptions for advertising. When using such apps, users may experience buffering issues or receive an error message «This content is not available in this app».
YouTube reminds you that its Terms of Service do not allow third-party apps to disable ads, «as this prevents the creator from receiving a viewer’s fee». As it has been doing for the past few months, since the fight against ad blockers began, YouTube offers to subscribe to Premium access if users want to watch videos without ads. YouTube Premium in Ukraine costs 99 UAH per month. Separate plans are also offered for family subscriptions (149 UAH per month for up to 6 users over 13 years old) or students (59 UAH per month).
Last November, YouTube announced that «had launched a global effort to encourage viewers who have ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium to get the» ad-free experience. This began with displaying pop-ups whenever an ad blocker is usedwith a message that it contradicts the Terms of Use of the site. Shortly after that, it appeared restrictions in the form of watching only three videos with the ad blocker enabledafter which the ability to watch subsequent videos was limited. Google subsequently stated that with the ad blocker installed, «users may experience a suboptimal viewing experience for» users, for example, having to wait longer before the video loads.
In addition, YouTube is considering the possibility of displaying ads when the user pauses the video. Testing of this feature began last May, and the results were quite good.
Source: engadget