Tag: YouTube

YouTube TV: Google promises fewer but longer ads

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Most YouTube users would probably agree that YouTube is more enjoyable without ads. Ads that play before, during or after videos on YouTube are seen as a nuisance by many users.

Google’s YouTube Premium subscription does away with ads, but it comes at the cost of $13.99 per month in the United States.

Google announced two changes recently that change advertisement on TV screens. The first promises fewer ad breaks for certain long-form content videos. The change comes at the cost of longer ad breaks.

Google started to test this change in September 2023. It says that the majority of viewers prefer grouped video ads instead of ads that are distributed throughout videos on YouTube.

YouTube TV Ads changes

YouTube TV ads new design

YouTube will roll out the announced change globally. It applies only to “certain long-form content on connected TVs”. YouTube will also change the information that YouTube displays to users during ad breaks.

Previously, YouTube displayed the number of ads that users can expect to see during the break. The change displays the total playtime of all ads until they can be skipped on the site or until the ad break ends. Not all adverts can be skipped on YouTube.

Ads are coming to YouTube Shorts on the big screen

YouTube users who like to watch Shorts, shorter videos, will start to see advertisement soon. The short video format was launched a little bit over a year ago on the big screen. Google says that it has seen the viewership double in less than a year already.

Google launches Shorts ads globally on YouTube TV. These ads are displayed in-between Shorts videos on the big screen.

According to Google, viewers may use their TV remotes to skip these ads, just like they can do on mobile devices.

Google’s announcement did not include additional details on the change. It is unclear how frequent ads are shown when users watch YouTube Shorts on the big screen.

There are alternatives

Most Smart TVs and media solutions, such as Amazon Fire TV devices , support the installation of third-party apps. There are several YouTube frontends that you may install on your devices that do away with ads and offer other advantages.

You can check out my guide on watching YouTube without ads on Fire TV here.

Installation is not as straightforward as using a connected ad store. It usually requires that you need to download the app from a third-party host, for instance GitHub, and install it manually.

The entire process is not overly complicated, but most may appreciate a step-by-step guide as it eliminates most issues that you may experience.

Closing Words

Google is introducing more ads on YouTube. While it tinkers around with ad formats, playtimes and number, it is clear that ads won’t go away on the site.

Google could make them less obnoxious and time-wasting, but it does not look as if this is going to happen in the near future.

Now You: do you watch videos on YouTube?

This script deals with YouTube’s Adblock Popup and Ads

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

This year has seen a fundamental shift on YouTube regarding advertising and adblockers. Not only is YouTube showing popups to some users who use adblockers, to get them to uninstall them or buy YouTube Premium, Google is also working on making adblockers in Chrome less effective.

Without going into too many details. Chrome’s system for extensions will be updated in 2024 to only allow extensions that follow a new rule set. Called Manifest V3, Google claims that it improves privacy of users and combats rogue extensions. At the same time, it is also limiting legitimate extensions, many of which impact Google’s bottom line.

Most content blockers work fine right now. While you may get the “ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube” popup message, it is easily dealt with by updating the filter list of the extension.

The change impacts other Chromium-based browsers to a degree. Some, like Brave or Vivaldi, include native adblockers that will continue to work.

2024 changes everything, or maybe not

Come 2024, things may not be as straightforward anymore. Extensions need to be updated by their developers to support the new rules set. Those that are not updated can’t be used anymore.

Those that are updated need to follow the new rules. Besides imposing certain limits on extensions, Google is also enforcing all updates through its Web Store.

Content blockers rely on frequent updates to deal with an ever changing advertising landscape. Advertisers may rename scripts or move them, and content blockers need to update filters before these are blocked.

Most content blockers rely on filter lists. These lists are updated directly at the moment. Once support for Manifest V2 is dropped, these updates need to be pushed through the Chrome Web Store.

One problem here is that updates take anywhere from a few hours to days or even weeks. Google is in control of these updates, and the situation will worsen only if everything is forced through the Web Store’s review process.

Imagine the following scenario: Advertiser A makes a change on the site. Filter lists are updated. Updates are pushed through the Chrome Web Store. The review takes hours or days. Until it passes the review, ads may be displayed on the advertisers property.

Now imagine an advertiser that constantly changes scripts and tactics.

Remove Adblock Thing

Remove Adblock Thing YouTube

Extensions are not the only option that users have to combat advertising and privacy invasions on the Internet. There are several other options, including DNS-based solutions and also userscripts.

Remove Adblock Thing is such a script. You need to install an extension in your browser of choice that supports scripts. A popular option is Tampermonkey, which is available for Chrome, Firefox and many other browsers.

The userscript blocks YouTube’s anti-adblocker popup. Besides that, it will also mute, skip or speed up ads on the site to improve its usability.

Here is how you install it:

  • Download Tampermonkey for your web browser. The official website has links to all stores.
  • Load https://github.com/TheRealJoelmatic/RemoveAdblockThing/blob/main/Youtube-Ad-blocker-Reminder-Remover.user.js next in your browser.
  • TamperMonkey should identify it immediately as a script and display its install option.
  • Select install to add it to the extension.

The script works automatically on YouTube and it includes an update URL as well.

Closing Words

The main benefit of the script is that it offers another option to skip or bypass ads on YouTube. Even if adblockers stop working temporarily or permanently, you may use Tampermoney with this script instead.

Now You: do you use adblockers or userscripts?

YouTube

YouTube’s ad blocker crackdown has an impact on content blockers

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Google’s crackdown on ad blockers on YouTube started in early August. The company began tests that informed a small percentage of users with ad blockers that “ad blockers were not allowed on YouTube”.

In August, things heated up as Google started to display the prompts aggressively to users with ad blockers. Two months on and it is now confirmed that Google is cracking down on the use of content blockers on YouTube globally.

Ad blocking was always a cat and mouse game on the Internet. As ad blockers evolved and started to gain tractions, sites and publishers began to develop countermeasures. Some introduced paywalls, others modified ads on their sites or used different techniques to display ads even on systems with ad blockers.

Developers of ad blockers reacted to these changes, and the whole thing began anew.

Impact on YouTube users

Google’s crackdown seems to have a severe impact on users who use ad blockers. It appears that a portion of users who use ad blockers on YouTube have uninstalled them to continue watching videos at the site.

While uninstallations have increased, installations of ad blockers have increased as well. A report from Wired includes quotes from several companies that produce content blockers.

The makers of AdGuard, a popular blocking tool with 75 million users, including 4.5 million paying customers, saw uninstallations jump from about 6000 per day to 52,000 in October. Installations surged to about 60,000 installations as well, levelling the number of installations and uninstallations. The paid version of AdGuard was not affected by this, according to the company.

Munich-based Ghostery noticed up to five times the installs and uninstalls throughout October, according to the report. Most users, when asked for the reason for uninstalling the extension, stated that it was not working anymore on YouTube.

Why installs and uninstalls are surging

install ublock origin in chrome

Ad blocker users who run into issues on YouTube have just a few options. They can follow Google’s advice and turn off the ad blocker. This allows them to watch YouTube videos with ads.

Another option is the purchase of YouTube Premium, but this comes at a monthly cost. Google announced an increase in the price as well recently.

The third option is to try different content blockers to find one that works. Users evaluate different content blockers until they find one that works or until they give up.

This explains the increase in uninstalls and installs at the same time. Even top of the line content blockers, like uBlock Origin, may fail to block ads on YouTube for a short period of time.

Well maintained content blockers and filter lists are updated frequently to react to changes that Google introduced on YouTube. It is still a cat and mouse game, and will continue to be one.

You can check out my guide on watching YouTube videos without ads here. It offers several options besides using content blockers. All of these methods work, but they may have disadvantages.

Now You: do you visit YouTube regularly?

It looks as if Streaming Services are dying to lose customers

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Streaming services have turned the wrong way in the past couple of years. While ad-powered plans are the big thing currently, there are other developments that many customers may not like. These push more and more customers to other options, including P2P.

Netflix started to push its ad-powered plan earlier this year and many streaming services have followed already or will follow Netflix’s example. Customers pay less for the subscription, but they have to watch advertisement instead.

It seems to be a lucrative deal for streaming services, as more and more start to push advertising on the platform. Netflix and Disney+ customers pay less when they sign-up for the ad-powered plan. Amazon sneaked in a little price hike, as it announced that all Prime Video users would get ads, unless they added an ad-free add-on to their plan for some extra Dollars.

Too many streaming services are a problem

Streaming services promised to do better than cable and regular TV offerings. Tune in whenever you want and watch as much as you want. The price was relatively low in the beginning and there were only a few services. Content was not spread across numerous services.

Movies and TV shows went an entirely different route than music. If you subscribe to a music streaming service, you will get access to the same catalog, with a few notable exceptions.

For TV shows and movies, things are not as customer friendly. Star Wars is exclusively available at Disney+, Netflix has Stranger Things, and HBO has The Wire. If you want the full catalog, you need to subscribe to a dozen or so services.

If you subscribe to all, you end up paying as much as you would for cable in the United States. One option to overcome this is to hop between streaming services frequently. Subscribe to Netflix for a month, watch everything you want, then switch to another service, and so on. You pay for a single service per month and still get to watch all the new content that is released per year. Only downside is that you may have to wait a month or two before you can finally watch something.

Ads are a major problem

Advertisement is another major problem. Many streaming services have ad-powered plans already or plan to introduce them. Some even push ads for all subscribers, unless they pay more to get rid of ads again.

Ads are the cheapest option when it comes to subscriptions, but this comes at the cost of having to watch ads every hour. Things go back fullcircle to TV, where you also have to sit through ads to watch shows and movies.

Amazon plans to introduce even more ads to users of its Fire TV offerings. These are already focused on pushing Amazon content. Soon, they will also deliver contextual sponsored tiles to customers.

Piracy is booming again

P2P networks, the Usenet and other services are seeing a revival. This seems to coincide with the networks push against password sharing, price increases and the introduction of more and more ads and ad-powered plans.

One study from the UK saw a “notable increase in piracy levels over the past two years” and that a declining trend seen in earlier studies appears to be reversing.

There are several reasons for the revival. First, because price increases make streaming services a luxury good. While some may be fine with viewing ads to get a discount, others won’t be.

Second, because of what individual streaming services offer. If you go to a torrent site, you find almost every show or movie there. If you go to any streaming service, you find some shows and movies there only.

Closing Words

The attractiveness of streaming services is going down, especially for users who can’t keep up with the constant price increases and users who want access to all content. Ads may work for some to mitigate these price hikes, but they are a no-go for others.

As the attractiveness off streaming services is going down, it is the reverse for other options. One of these options is P2P; it will continue to rise, provided that streaming services don’t reverse their course.

It is probably inevitable that streaming services will lose customers in the medium to long run. Prices continue to increase, ads continue to be pushed and content continues to be spread across a dozen or so services.

Now You: what is your take on this?

How to bypass YouTube video ads without adblockers

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

YouTube is a popular destination for all things video. It is a Google-owned property and video ads are common on the platform. One of the main issues for many users is that advertisement has become annoying on YouTube lately.

Probably the most annoying type is the mid-video ad, as it interrupts the video. There are other types, including multiple unskippable ads before videos or after videos.

Lately, Google started to block videos from playing if it detected the use of an ad blocker. Not all YouTube visitors face this, but tests are conducted. These tests have grown in intensity up to the point to locking out users if they continue to use ad-blockers.

It is possible to bypass YouTube video ads without use of a traditional ad blocker. Probably the easiest way is to subscribe to YouTube Premium, but this is not what this guide is about.

Below, you find different suggestions to watch YouTube videos without ads and traditional content blocker.

YouTube Frontends

One of the better options is to redirect YouTube videos to frontends. You can do that manually, often by simply editing the URL of the video, or automatically.

I reviewed LibRedirect and Privacy Redirects on Ghacks. These browser extensions redirect YouTube videos to privacy friendly frontends. All frontends come without ads or privacy-invasive features.

Invidious is a popular frontend that many extensions use. A list of domains is available here. Note that you may need to adjust the default frontends in the extensions with working ones.

Take yewtu.be as an example. Open it and you get a basic search interface. You may use it to find any YouTube video and play it. To use it manually, simply replace youtube.com with yewtu.be and keep the rest of the address the same.

The extensions do the heavy lifting for you, so that you don’t have to edit domain names manually each time.

You bypass YouTube video ads automatically when you use the frontends.

There are some downsides, especially for users who sign-in. You can’t access your channel subscriptions, vote on videos or do other activities that require an account.

Other frontends are available. Here is a short list of options:

A full list is available on GitHub.

Third-party YouTube apps

YouTube frontends work in all modern browsers, including on mobile devices. Some may prefer to run apps and it may sometimes be the only option.

A popular app for Android is NewPipe. It is an open source app that supports a wide range of features. The app pulls data from the official API, internal APIs or the official website, depending on the level of restrictions.

NewPipe supports video resolutions up to 4K and live streams. It can be used to play audio in the background, search for videos on YouTube, enqueue videos and even subscribe to channels.

Other options include downloading videos for offline viewing, watching playlists or browsing channel feeds.

Another app option is SmartTubeNext, which works well on Android TVs and Fire TV devices. It is open source and brings YouTube to the television.

Other alternatives are:

Bypass YouTube video ads by skipping them

Fadblock is a browser extension for Google Chrome, Firefox and other Chromium-based browsers. I reviewed it today on Ghacks.

Note: the developer of the extension has turned it into a commercial one.

Instead of blocking YouTube ads, it is loading and skipping them. This happens quickly and automatically. In other words: ads may be displayed for a fraction of a second before the actual video starts to play.

It is not an adblocker, as it does not block YouTube ads outright. Ads get loaded but skipped or fast forwarded immediately.

It is an interesting concept, one that is likely better protected against anti-adblocking techniques on YouTube.