YouTube Restricting Some Users From Using Ad Blockers Says Disable It

The tech industry is going through a challenging phase, and YouTube is not immune to it. The online video-sharing platform, which is owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is seeing a decline in its ad revenues. As a result, it is implementing significant changes to its platform. One of those changes is reportedly cracking down on users who utilize ad-blockers. As per a Reddit user who first spotted the issue, some users are now restricted from watching YouTube videos unless they turn off their ad-blocking software.

The pop-up that appears when someone attempts to watch a video on YouTube warns that “it looks like you’re using an ad blocker, and video playback will be blocked unless you enable ads.” It then urges the user to either allow ads or try out YouTube Premium if they want to see videos. YouTube has confirmed the message as part of a small experiment.

As we all know, video advertising is the primary source of income for many YouTube content creators. However, the increasing popularity of TikTok and a decrease in overall digital ad spending has caused the company to shift its focus away from traditional video advertising and toward more short-form content, such as the popular YouTube Shorts format. As a result, content creators have seen their ad revenue decline, and many are now turning to Patreon or YouTube Premium to support their work.

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This new crackdown on ad-blocking users is not surprising and is an attempt by YouTube to combat the loss in ad revenue and push more viewers to its paid Premium subscription. The YouTube Premium service offers ad-free viewing and access to original content that isn’t available on the site’s free version. Subscribers also get the benefit of being able to download videos, access the highest-quality versions of uploaded videos, and access YouTube Music without having to see ads in between songs.

YouTube isn’t the only online video platform to use ad-blocking to encourage more viewers to sign up for its paid service. Earlier this year, Amazon launched a similar effort with its Prime Video service by showing users that they can watch content without commercial interruptions if they pay for a Prime membership.

To qualify as ad-free, users must be Prime members, have at least a subscription of 30 days or more, and have a device that supports HD streaming. The service is currently only available in the US.

As for whether YouTube will implement this new approach to ad blocking worldwide, it has yet to be made clear. However, it has already started to crack down on users who don’t follow its guidelines, and even a single click on an ad can cause a viewer’s account to be temporarily blocked. As such, it’s easy to imagine YouTube extending this policy to all users if the experiment succeeds.