YouTube Irks Users by Displaying 5 To 10 Unskippable Ads in a Row (pcmag.com) 262
Have you been encountering way too many unskippable ads on YouTube? You're not alone. PCMag: Oftentimes, YouTube only shows two ads before a video starts. But in recent weeks, some users on social media have reported seeing as many as five to eight or even 10 unskippable ads in a row. One user who encountered eight unskippable ads during a viewing said each ad was about five to 10 seconds in length. The high ad load is inevitably causing concerns YouTube will display more unskippable ads for all users in an effort to rake in more revenue. But the Google-owned platform told PCMag the sharp increase in the unskippable ads was merely a test.
"At YouTube, we're focused on helping brands connect with audiences around the world, and we're always testing new ways to surface ads that enhance the viewer experience," a YouTube spokesperson says in a statement. "We ran a small experiment globally that served multiple ads in an ad pod when viewers watched longer videos on connected TVs. The goal is to build a better experience for viewers by reducing ad breaks." In other words, the test was about showing the viewer more ads in the beginning of the YouTube video, rather than spacing them out. YouTube's spokesperson adds: "We have concluded this small experiment." But whether the platform will ramp up the unskippable ad rate in the future remains unclear.
"At YouTube, we're focused on helping brands connect with audiences around the world, and we're always testing new ways to surface ads that enhance the viewer experience," a YouTube spokesperson says in a statement. "We ran a small experiment globally that served multiple ads in an ad pod when viewers watched longer videos on connected TVs. The goal is to build a better experience for viewers by reducing ad breaks." In other words, the test was about showing the viewer more ads in the beginning of the YouTube video, rather than spacing them out. YouTube's spokesperson adds: "We have concluded this small experiment." But whether the platform will ramp up the unskippable ad rate in the future remains unclear.
Enhance the User experience (Score:5, Informative)
new ways to surface ads that enhance the viewer experience
By definition, ADS DO NOT ENHANCE THE USER EXPERIENCE!!!! So don't even bother.
Ad blockers (Score:5, Funny)
By definition, ADS DO NOT ENHANCE THE USER EXPERIENCE
True, but if you look at it from a different angle now ad-blockers enhance the user experience even more than they did before!
Re: (Score:2)
I know, right?
I had forgotten youtube has ads; I haven't seen one in ages. Thank you pi-hole!
Re: Ad blockers (Score:2)
Thank you non-ad blocker users for paying for my service with your attention! I think anyone tech savvy has an ad blocker installed.
Re: Ad blockers (Score:5, Funny)
I occasionally turn off the ad blocker and let it autoplay over night. I consider it a public service.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm in law enforcemement. You think this would go for community service?
Re: (Score:3)
Yes but I watch most of the youtube on my tv where I can't block ads. Even site blocking on a router no longer works as the ads are served up directly from Youtube.
Yesterday I was annoyed that I was getting 2 unskippable ads in a row. The 5 seconds until I skip is fine but that's too much now and I may just give up on big screen youtube.
Re: Ad blockers (Score:5, Informative)
Get a cheap/old laptop or mini-pc with HDMI output. Run youtube on that...
Re: (Score:3)
For Android devices there is Smart Tube. As well as being ad free it can skip over sponsor segments and other crap automatically.
You can get an Android TV box very cheaply, if your TV doesn't have it.
Re: Ad blockers (Score:5, Interesting)
This sounds like the lead away from YouTube that I've been seeking for some months now. Potential thanks, though I suspect it may lack the kind of content that I'm looking for. It's actually a kind of monopoly of the content that has given YouTube the delusions of grandeur that had led to these deluges of offensive ads.
I haven't been willing to go the adblock route because of Kant's old Categorical Imperative. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] There are times when I'm willing to accept advertising even though I know about TANSTAAFL, too. (You can look up the rest of the refs yourself...) If everyone used adbockers, then that option would collapse and I could not decide when those times are.
YouTube used to be one of them, but not now. Plus much of the content I select has embedded ads, so the adblockers avail not. The main reason in YouTube's favor was the video selection interfaces, though the performance of the main selection interface has also been going to shite lately. Incompetence or part of the pressure to pay the blackmail subscription?
Excuse me, but I also reject blackmail. So that leaves me with ranting in the comments after the videos. Amusingly enough, those anti-ad rants are the comments that get more reactions than any of my most substantive thoughts that react to the actual content in the video. I have a whole bank of them, but here's the one that catches the most flak directly from the google of ever increasing EVIL:
What kind of comment does the google actually censor?
Hint: Seen a lying ad or BS propaganda here?
Better not mention it--but just let it push you off of YouTube.
Too bad the EVIL monopolists have eliminated any better websites, eh?
Re: Ad blockers (Score:5, Informative)
Just as bad as Chrome.
Re: (Score:3)
Just as bad as Chrome.
Except for the bit where if I log into the YouTube or Gmail or any other Google-owned sites, Chrome itself will also be logged into my Google account as well, which it can then use to track my every move around the web and tie it back to my account/profile, even if I'm running uMatrix with all cookies or third-party content disabled. Which you can't disable, of course. Not cool.
Brave has loads of stuff I dislike (e.g. cryptocurrency features, optional ads, etc., all of which can thankfully be disabled), but
Re: (Score:2)
To be fair I see them very infrequently and I dont use a blocker. Maybe it's the videos I watch but I havent observed what this article is saying at all in my own use.
Re: (Score:3)
That, unfortunately, does not work. Advertising companies have done a trick a long tine ago: They made sure that ad "effectiveness" is only done by brand recognition, not on whether you hate the brand or love it. So as long as you remember a brand (even as "They have the most intrusive ads! I hate their guts and will never, ever buy from them!") the advertisers claim that the ad was a success. And since ad customers usually cannot do their own statistics they continue to believe their ads work. This was don
Re: (Score:2)
Came here to say this, am leaving satisfied.
No advert has ever enhanced any user's experience of anything.
Re: (Score:2)
Not entirely true.
Advertisement can be a positive, if it's targeted to the demographic and contains relevant information, it can be assistive.
For instance, I listen to podcasts - a lot of them. Probably 20-40 hours worth in a week, often at double speed. I have bought things from the ads on those podcasts on numerous occasions because I want to support the podcasters, but also because (primarily) I'm interested in the services they're selling.
That's somewhat different than seeing the same fucking add for so
Re: (Score:2)
Advertisement can be a positive, if it's targeted to the demographic and contains relevant information, it can be assistive.
It isn't positive if it comes up in a Youtube video I'm trying to watch. If I want to see an advert, like I'm looking for a new phone or tool, I will do a search myself for what the sales merchants have to offer. My search (and finding) will be sharply focussed on what I want. Anything that some marketing droid thinks I should want will be way off target in both the entity itself and their timing; it always was in the days before I learned how to block the crap totally.
Re: (Score:2)
What's the problem? Your guy gets paid. The bad guys burn money. That seems like the best possible outcome to me.
Re: (Score:2)
I did watch one gaming video where the host actually apologized for the ads and saidhe had no control over what's shown (but please hit that subscribe button!!!11). I think there's too many people making money off of youtube, and they will tacitly defend the advertisement industrial complex lest they have to get a real job.
Re: (Score:3)
If you don't want ads, you can pay directly for that privilege too.
Or run a pi-hole
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
20-30 dumb-as-fuck ads about 'natural soap' from that "Dr. Squatch" lame-ass
You're not a DISH, you're a MAN!
Re: (Score:3)
Just use Firefox with uBlock Origin. It works great on mobile.
Re: (Score:2)
10-20 lying ass republican nazifucker ads, 20-30 utter fucking scam ads by that "Umzu / Zupoo" fraud, 20-30 dumb-as-fuck ads about 'natural soap' from that "Dr. Squatch" lame-ass, 20-30 absolute financial frauds, and another 50-60 horribly fucking repetitive Google Fi ads.
The best part is that even if you purchase Gremmarly, you'll still see adverts for it on Youtube.
Re: (Score:2)
without ads there would be no YouTube because ads literally fund the content creation
I was waiting for someone to come up with that because someone always does. But this is Slashdot, so don't you think we have heard all that before?
But I'm happy to let the majority dumbfucks pay who don't know how to install an adblocker. Actually I'm doing those marketing drones a favour by blocking them because ads have a negative effect on me.
Re: (Score:2)
That may be, but they have to realize there's such a thing as diminishing returns and then COUNTERPRODUCTIVE behavior. And that's what the current ad volume at Youtube is. It's so bad that people will either use stream rippers / downloaders, or just walk away and not bother with Youtube.
There are gonna be the wags who cry "if you're not paying for the service, you're the product" - but even if so, Youtube's asinine behavior is driving away the product by making the video streaming completely un-usable.
Re: (Score:2)
There are gonna be the wags who cry "if you're not paying for the service, you're the product"
Honestly, even when you pay, you still are a product. Nothing really gets better by the amount you pay.
Re:Enhance the User experience (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm a full-time YouTube content creator and I do not use mid-roll ads on my videos. All I have are pre-rolls and post-rolls.
Why?
Simple, I value my viewer's enjoyment and time far too much to burden them with crappy ads throughout the video.
Some of my videos are 20-30 minutes long and they still have no mid-rolls.
I did try a single video with mid-rolls and it gave me no extra revenue over those without mid-rolls but it did see a much shorter watch-time because people clicked-away during the mid-roll ads.
Bottom line... mid-rolls offer me (the creator) no extra revenue but they drive away viewers so there's no point in using them.
By adopting a no-mid-roll policy I believe I have a much greater support via Patreon (because people appreciate the lack of ads) and thus my overall revenues are higher than if I was using mid-rolls.
Other people's mileage may vary but I (and my viewers) are happy with my choice.
It's just a shame that so many YT content creators are so greedy and think that it's a good idea to put as many mid-rolls as they can in their videos. Myself, I rarely watch beyond the first mid-roll ad if a video has them.
If YouTube starts pushing more than two ads per ad-break or as pre-rolls then I will move everything to Odysee and rely on Patreon for all my revenues.
Re: (Score:3)
I have to ask....
As a YouTube Premium subscriber; I don't see any ads on any videos. You getting anything from that or is Youtube playing a game of "we got ours screw you"?
Re: (Score:3)
... YouTube because ads literally fund the content creation, pay the wages of people creating content and pay for most other expenses on that platform. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
I agree with the last part, but not the first. There are plenty of content creators that don't monetize their content, or who monetize content in other ways, e.g. nonprofit organizations taking donations. They might fund some content creation, but from what I've seen, the content with the most ads is also the content I'm least interested in watching, so I would argue that this isn't creating a better experience at all.
And don't get me started on the leeches who rebroadcast content and monetize it. Durin
Re: Enhance the User experience (Score:3)
Given that YouTubers get paid at a rate that is below the poverty line, I am going to call bullshit. It is a well known fact that YouTube takes nearly half of all ad revenue generated by its users. Why do you think content creators are forced to beg for Patreon donations and why they started baking in sponsor ads?
To even get to a point where YouTube is slightly profitable means climbing over a massive barrier to entry, with a minimum subscriber count and minimum hours of watched content in a year just to q
Time to switch to Utreon (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
The name does sound vaguely like a bladder infection, though.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Why would somebody use Ultreon over Odysee?
Is it decentralized?
Is the content uncensorable?
Is the revenue peer to peer and unseizable?
At this point any YT replacement has to answer yes to all these to compete on the merits. Otherwise the best possibility is another abuser like YouTube.
Re: Time to switch to Utreon (Score:5, Funny)
You had me curious. I googled Odysee.
Odysee is a video sharing app that's built on the open-source, decentralized, blockchain-based
...aaand closed the tab.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
This Web goes to 3.0!
Dear Youtube, (Score:3)
At YouTube, we're focused on helping brands connect with audiences
Over here, we're focused on not connecting to the brands. We don't give two shits about your stupid brands. We just want the content we clicked on.
So, please stop? Pretty please?
Love,
The audiences.
Re: (Score:3)
There is some degree of advertisement I will tolerate, but it's got to meet certain criteria:
* not be annoying
* not repetitive (I think of the early days of Hulu advertisement here, where you'd see the same ad for every show, over and over...)
* not interfere directly with my stream of consciousness (any add which interrupts video qualifies here)
I'd tolerate ad overlays on videos, maybe brief ones every 20 minutes or so. But that's about it. Anything beyond that and I'm looking elsewhere for whatever I'm loo
Re: Dear Youtube, (Score:2)
Are you against subtract?
Re: (Score:3)
Are you against subtract?
I can't prove the value of that negative action.
Re: Dear Youtube, (Score:2)
Hard no even if all of those are met.
Attention is a resource like everything else - one I'm very conscious about nit having exploited.
Re: (Score:2)
* not be annoying
That's a pretty high bar right there...
Re: (Score:2)
Technically, we can connect solely to the YouTube brand for like $12 a month?
And this is why I use a video ripper... (Score:3)
Youtube flinging that many ads before a video. RANDOMLY inserting mid-video ads every 2-3 minutes. Fuck that. They broke the product, I've got a fix for it.
The worse they make the experience, the more people will do what I do. FAR more people will do what I do as opposed to giving them $25/month to remove the dozens of fucking ads they fling at me every 2-3 minutes.
They need to dump all the fucking scam ads, they need to dump all the other crap cluttering up their system, and they need to make the experience worth it for the users. It's no surprise all my favorite channels have been trying to get viewers to move over to CuriosityStream or Nebula these days, and those ARE far better experiences.
Re: (Score:2)
Use pi-hole. I haven't seen a single youtube ad in ages.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Why not both?
I even redirect all traffic from my smartphone through a VPN through my home server to use my pi-hole.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
uBlock won't work on all devices, e.g. watching youtube on a smart TV or Roku.
Re:And this is why I use a video ripper... (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You mean those overpriced, oversized boxes with noisy fans so loud I can't hear the TV?
Re: (Score:2)
Build better PCs moron.
Re: (Score:2)
No kidding on the pi-hole. I run it in a vm on my home server and I see next to zip commercials, either on youtube or elsewhere.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. I'll add to that uBlock Origin. It works perfectly with FireFox on mobile.
Re: (Score:2)
It says it can be used with smart tvs, but the guides are highly obtuse, and that's even with knowing some networking. I've got a dd-wrt, and it would make sense for this to be built in there, instead of a separate device. The forums are baffling with how they're trying to get things set up.
Re: (Score:3)
I have pi-hole and set it as my DNS server for my televisions and I still see ads on Youtube, particularly the Subaru and Safelite glass, repeatedly! I will sit through the sponsored segments for the channels I do subscribe to, but the other ads are annoying.
Is there a list I should be subscribing to specifically, I just use the default lists that are set up with the pi-hole.
Unskippable? (Score:3)
They're not unskippable if you never see ads to begin with...
At least you can pay your way out (Score:3)
I hate paying $10/month for yet another service, but Youtube would be worthless to me if it didn't have a paid ad-free tier. After going a decade without watching broadcast TV, I have zero tolerance for commercials anymore.
If it weren't Google... (Score:2)
I would also pay the monthly fee. After all, I'm using a service, I should pay for it. But I know that even in paying, Google is /still/ going to make me the product. So uBlock Origin it is.
I'm lucky enough to like several (well, 10-12) creators that also stream on Nebula, so I pay for that service. I wish everybody I liked was over there but I can't have everything.
Re: (Score:2)
You get the added benefit of music.youtube with the payment. so it is no ads on youtube and their music service for the payment.
Adverts (Score:5, Insightful)
Youtube has adverts? I've never seen one.
Maybe you could get a proper web browser...
Re: (Score:2)
You know it will eventually look like an Idiocracy TV.
Good luck blocking that.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Look at grandpa over here with his full size computer
In the past .. (Score:5, Interesting)
.. Grandpa used to asked his grandkids how to do computer stuff,
nowadays kids ask grandpa how to do computer stuff.
O tempora, o mores
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Look at grandpa over here with his full size computer
Not sure what you have against grandpa over there, but I don't see adverts on my phone either. What are you doing wrong? Watching YouTube with the YouTube app? Who does that! It's f-ing horrible.
Re: (Score:3)
Well, grandpa has no time to look at you because he's busy watching the video while you're still waiting for the ad to finish.
Propper Webbrowser? (Score:2)
Mine is as defective as yours, the ads don't seem to work.
Re: (Score:2)
Youtube has adverts? I've never seen one.
Maybe you could get a proper web browser...
Secret tracking and data mining, that's something that should be blocked.
But ad blocking?
One way or another YouTube is a business that needs to be paid for, either through ads or their ad-free "premium" service.
I don't enjoy the ads, but I recognize the web as a business model only works when there's some kind of revenue.
Re: (Score:2)
Browsing the interwebs without ad-blockers is like going to an orgy without condoms. You are just begging to be infected by something.
Re: (Score:2)
Works great on my computer. However cant' get the roku to skip the ads. Even with a dd-wrt adblock in the past it only worked briefly until youtube figure out how to get through anyway.
Save YouTube videos to video files. Jump past ads. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Do you have a suggestion for software youtube-dl gets bandwidth capped by youtube.
Re: (Score:2)
Make a list of videos you want to download, put them in a file, run youtube-dl with the --batch-file option and run it overnight. Zzzzzz...
Re: (Score:2)
You should take a look through the comments. There are much better (simpler & faster) options.
YouTube Premium (Score:2)
This is why I pay for Argentinian YouTube Premium. Thanks VPNs!
Fuck this shit (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Fuck this shit (Score:2)
Pi hole
Re: (Score:3)
Says it works for smart tvs and devices. But its guides are obtuse. Go to it's main home page and on that page it does not tell you what it does until step 4. Why wouldn't the main page just say "here is what pi-hole is and what it does"? Instead, the very first thing is "how to install". Might be nice to explain why you want to install it in the first place. Maybe it's oriented only to people who have prior knowledge of what it is? I had to go to its wiki page to get the basic overview.
Probably beca
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah, that seems to be a thing with the "app" version of YouTube, based on my experience with my PS3. I once got served a 14 minute unskippable ad in Spanish, a language I don't speak. Every time I closed a video with that ad in front, every new video I opened up tried to make me watch the exact same ad from the beginning. It was the only ad YouTube kept giving me. The only way to get around it was... to wait until the next day.
I never tried watching a video on any platform other than an adblocked PC ag
I remain un-irked (Score:5, Insightful)
I've got YouTube links diverted to youtube-dl/VLC player. Because Firefox sound through PulseAudio (PussAudio) is broken. And ALSA Just Works.
A side effect of this is: no ads.
Ad Blockers (Score:2)
Re:Ad Blockers (Score:5, Insightful)
> I'm shocked at how unusable the web has become.
Greed is a cancer that destroys all nice things. :-/
Premium (Score:2)
A/B threshold testing? (Score:2)
Are trying to experimentally figure out the maximum tolerable threshold by selectively displaying different number of ads to different users?
Baked in ads (Score:2)
And then you often have skip through baked in ads. “Let me tell you about this videos sponsor”.
Re: Baked in ads (Score:2)
I use SponsorBlock for that crap. It does a fine job of skipping past the baked in ads on pretty much every video Iâ(TM)ve watched. You can also skip the begging for likes and subscribes drivel with it I also have BlockTube which is nice for just eliminating trash channels from appearing in my feed, as well as all of YouTube Shorts. Itâ(TM)s made the YouTube experience more tolerable for me.
Re: (Score:2)
Some of them are okay where the content producer personally endorses the product. e.g. one creator is savvy enough to market products his viewers might find alluring - even if I would never buy boxes of brightly coloured cereal off the internet, it's entertaining enough.
OTOH, the repetitive endorsements for geo-unblocking VPN products - I wouldn't trust any of these players to anonymously route my traffic without nefarious monetization.
Ad blockers to the rescue (Score:2)
I've never seen a single ad on youtube. Ever.
How?
1. Adblock Plus with a number of custom lists.
2. Hosts-based blocking: https://someonewhocares.org/ho... [someonewhocares.org]
3. Pi-hole as the default DNS resolver: https://pi-hole.net/ [pi-hole.net]
Re:Ad blockers to the rescue (Score:5, Informative)
https://adblockplus.org/accept... [adblockplus.org]
uBlock [github.com] is the way to go.
Re: (Score:2)
You know that you can fully turn off acceptable ads in ABP, right?
I'm amused by ads that are wasting their money (Score:2)
Ah yes, they cry of entitlement. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
50 seconds of ads is still way better then the 7+ minutes you got in broadcast tv every 30 mins.
...And if it was 50 seconds of ads before a 10-minute video, I'm fairly confident that most people would consider that a viable tradeoff.
However, I've had ads that were five minutes long, as a preroll for a 4-minute video. There have been 30 minute ads, six 15-second ads that have interrupted youtube videos mid-sentence, and static ads that cover written lower-third instructions on tutorial videos.
While most people do understand that there are bills to pay, the point being made here is that Youtube has gott
Only 3 options (Score:5, Informative)
There are only 3 ways that YouTube can exist:
1. Collect and sell your personal data
2. Show you ads
3. Charge you directly for the service
It seems like some people want the "free" service with no strings attached. Without one or more of those revenue streams, the service won't exist. So pick your poison.
Re: (Score:3)
There's a fourth option: All of the above. That's what cable TV did, after starting out with promises of ad-free TV in exchange for subscription fees.
The goal is to see how much we can get away with (Score:2)
Fun fact, VLC will play YouTube videos and doesn't seem to know how to display the adverts.
Premium (Score:2)
FWIW, Premium is totally worth it. I (of course) have ublock, etc., on my browser(s) but I watch youtube on a roku on my big tv sometimes. Ok, a lot. Yes, I had a HTPC for like a decade, but replaced it with a roku. I was tired of the constant fiddling to make it work the way I wanted, and while the roku sucks, it usually "just works". The youtube ads were really not a big deal until about a year ago, not long after "Youtube Premium" became available I think. So I cancelled spotify ($15/mo) and signed
There are ads on YouTube? (Score:3)
I forgot that I've been blocking them.