Technology

Have you tried using SponsorBlock?

Personally, I don’t mind the idea of paying YouTube to remove ads. I’m pragmatic enough to understand that you don’t get shit for free, particularly when that shit is using unimaginable amounts of data.

What I object to is that the YT Premium family plan is now more than £20 a month.

For the cost of Disney+ and Apple TV+ I can watch semi-professional video makers talking at a camera for ten minutes. Video makers who aren’t getting paid all that much for what they do. Video makers who also include sponsors reads.

So I fired up the trusty VPN, “flew to Ukraine” and signed up for around £3 a month. Fuck ‘em.

The mad thing is; if there was a £5 a month tier that only removed ads and didn’t include YT Music, I’d sign up to that without question. I watch a good amount of YouTube content on my Apple TV; I’m happy to pay. But I’m not happy to pay what YT are asking.

It's the progressive intrusion and shady tactics. Going from multiple short ads to fewer longer ads seems like a small step. But from the original of maybe a static banner ad to the multiple full screen pop-ups, moving banners, unclosable ads, and whatever other bullshit they pull, we've come a long fucking way. Add onto that, harvesting data for ads and being incentivized to do so questions security.

It's more a protest to marketing in general trying to face fuck the world for another penny and enshittified products or services gleefully ruining what was once good for a penny.

I know others have said previously, but for me I hate the amount of tracking and targeting that gets thrown into the ads that try to pull as much personal information from you as possible so they can make every cent from that info. I like to keep my life as private as I can online. YouTube by no means has any respect for that.

Having an ad here and there wouldn’t normally bother me so much if it also wasn’t for the complete lack of filtering YouTube does on what ads are “acceptable”. So many ads have been misleading, contain false information, and are just down right inappropriate. An ad for a product is fine but I really don’t want to listen to another ad with an AI voice telling me to buy a product that is a blatant scam. If they are this strict on making creators follow the YouTube Guidelines, they should make ads follow them too.

I do understand that things aren’t free and I do support the creators I watch with buying merch or through donations, wherever that may be (KoFi, Patreon, etc). I would pay for YouTube premium but it’s just way too much money for the little that I would actually benefit from it. I don’t need or want YouTube Music. I just don’t want to have ads. But for $18.99 a month, no thank you.

TL;DR: Too much tracking and privacy invasive, ads don’t follow YouTube’s own guidelines and too expensive just to simply stop ads.

I can’t recall a time in history before this last 10 hellish years where I’ve been required to watch ads. If CBS had required that I have some sort of pressure plate to make sure my ass was in the seat during the ad breaks they’d be getting hate too. They can serve all the ads they want, I can choose to watch them. They’re violating the 2nd part of it and incurring the hostility that they should. Everything is turning into a timeshare presentation.

My major grip with the current ads are that they are obtrusive and repetitive.

On broadcast TV, I dont mind ads as much because the shows were written, filmed, and edited with predictable ad breaks in mind. I have a good idea how long the ad break will be and when they happen. Makes it easy to plan bathroom breaks, drink refills, or discuss what we're watching.

On Youtube, the ads seemingly pop up at random, usually in the middle of a sentence. Sometimes, there will be 2 ad breaks, and other times, there are 4 ad breaks for similar videos. If youtube would make ads consistent (30 second ad break at the half way point for < 10 mins vids; 15 second at break at 1/3 of the way through the video and a second one at 2/3 of the video for 10 - 30 min vids; etc) and content creators would edit their vidoes for these predetermined ad breaks, they would be much more palatable.

I get that the ad pool is based on tracking data/video content, but watching the same pool of 3 or 4 ads makes me less likely to buy something. Throw in some random ads in there, too, to break up the monotony.

YouTube premium is very expensive for what it is. It should be like $5 a month to be worth the value, for me personally.