YouTube: 5 ads the norm now? - eviltoast

For context I’m in the US. The last time I used YouTube without an ad blocker, there were 2 ads back to back, and way too frequently. I tried watching on my PlayStation tonight, and not only are they more frequent, they’ve increased in quantity by 150%. It’s also very common for the last ad to last 2 minutes to over an hour long. What the actual fuck, why would anyone watch YouTube without an ad blocker at this point? It’s literally unwatchable

Edit: the amount of unsolicited advice in the comments is unreal. I don’t get ads on my phone or on desktop, I’m very aware of how to block them. I simply won’t watch YouTube on my PlayStation anymore. I’m not looking for suggestions, please stop with the recommendations.

  • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
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    1 year ago

    Geez, so many entitled people in this thread. If Google didn’t get their yearly revenue growth, their poor execs wouldn’t be able to afford their 3rd yacht! Stop being selfish and subscribe to premium already! /s

      • Victor@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Wasn’t that something Paris Hilton said? 😆 “Have they, like, tried not being poor?” I may have added the “like”. But it’s very plausible it was there!

    • echo64@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      What about the content creators? I don’t care about Google, but I want the people who make the things I enjoy to get paid.

      Sure, you can subscribe to patreons, but you can’t subscribe to everyone’s, and frankly, 99% of people don’t subscribe to any.

      I guess we can all just say ha doesn’t matter I got mine and try to not think about it. I guess that is the plan.

      • namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        It’s not your responsibility to make up for Google’s shortcomings. They’re a ~5 trillion dollar company now. They could easily change their payment structure if they wanted to, but they don’t because their shareholders are more important. If a company with >10^8 times more net worth than you isn’t going to bother, then don’t make it your responsibility.

        It’s sad, but unfortunately, the creators made a deal with the devil, and it’s not regular people’s responsibility to get them out.

        And don’t forget, there was a time when nobody made any money for posting things on youtube - it was just a site for sharing things people found novel and interesting, with no expectation of remuneration whatsoever. I would even argue that it was a much better time to be there than it is now - back before they had recommendation algorithms pushing people to all kinds of deplorable content and pushing the biddings of far-right dictators. Rewarding Google for this kind of behavior only makes it worse.

      • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
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        1 year ago

        The majority of people that uploaded their video on youtube never see those ads money because they don’t meet the criteria to receive ad revenue, and those that do, get so little and earn most of their income from other sources (endorsements, paid review, etc). Those minority who blocked ads don’t really affect content creator’s bottom line in a meaningful way. Subscription is another matter though because it pays higher rates, though still pretty low compared to other income stream.

      • Voyajer@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        If you truly care about a creator you can buy their some of their merch. The profit from that will out-value watching every one of their videos with ads for the foreseeable future.

    • JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      IDK why the hell it’s allowed, but a lot of times people will buy adspace and just put an entire video in it, or worse, a company buys the adspace and puts the entire pilot to a TV show in there. I’ve seen both things happen more than once. Who in their right mind clicks on a YouTube video, sees the pilot to a show they’ve never heard of or a random clickbait video and thinks “Oh, I wanna watch this!”

        • namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          The net worth of tech giants also needs a severe correction.

          Not just tech giants of course, pretty much all large >billion dollar companies need it too. But tech is a great place to start.

      • ares35@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        the first time i watched the lego movie it (the full film) was an ad played during the trailer for the second movie. and it (the movie) didn’t have ads in it.

        • Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          This is wild haha I wonder if it was just someone trying to piss off the studios by popping that in there for free or something? I guess that way it’s guaranteed to never have ads for anyone, ad blocker or not.

        • snowe@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          We watched that ad too. Hilariously enough it was on a video for the trailer for Lego movie two or whatever.

      • 🐑🇸 🇭 🇪 🇪 🇵 🇱 🇪🐑@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The worst part about those is

        When the ad is actually something I want to watch, there is no way to open it as a seperate video. Once I click off it’s fucking gone forever. It’s such backwards design. The few times I have interest in an ad I can’t even properly check watch it!

      • ares35@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        the first time i watched the lego movie, it (the full feature) was an ad played during the trailer for the second movie–and it didn’t have any ads in it either.

        • JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          They didn’t want you to spoil the first movie, so they made sure you had the chance to see it. That’s a hundred percent something LEGO would do.

  • dingus@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    OP, I know exactly what you’re talking about.

    I was visiting relatives this Christmas and wanted to watch some of my YouTube videos on their SmartTV. I have watched YouThe with ads on occasion throughout the years…usually when watching some video on a relative’s device or school or work computer or something. They are annoying, but mostly fairly manageable. So I started up a 20 minute vid from a youtuber I like.

    I shit you not…within the first 5 fucking minutes of the video, there were 5 separate ad breaks. And each ad was going to play for minutes on end if I never hit the skip button.

    Yep, you read that right. One ad per minute. I am NOT exaggerating. I counted them and watched the video timestamps.

    I almost could not believe what I was seeing. My mind was fucking blown. Never have I ever experienced that egregious level of ads. It made the content I was trying to view literally unwatchable and I switched off the video.


    To OP, I’d highly recommend getting an Android tv device like a modern Chromecast (not the old models…needs to run android). They are relatively inexpensive and make viewing content on TVs a sane experience. I think I maybe got mine for $40 or something. Install SmartTube Next and you’ll have no ads. Works fantastic. You set it up once and never worry about it again.

      • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I don’t even use my tv for a tv. I just hook up my laptop to play games. If I wanna watch movies, shows, or videos I got my jellyfin client and youtube is ad free with ubo and firefox

    • Sprokes@jlai.lu
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      1 year ago

      The same here. I know ublock Origin still works with the update but I just stopped and I am streaming my own content.

  • Tuxman@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    This should go in “VeryInfuriating”. I agree YouTube has become unwatchable without any kind of ad-block or cheap Premium

  • harry_balzac@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I read your edit and thought “how bad could it be?”

    I started reading the comments and it was way worse than I thought.

    The most upvoted comments all display a great deal of “I only read 2 words of your original post” energy.

    I didn’t bother with an adblocker until recently myself because I was okay with a couple of ads or mentioning sponsors.

    Then, one day, the ads just multiplied on every video. It was that sudden for me. After a couple of days, I downloaded apps for my phone and TV and it’s been wonderful.

    I’ll watch YT in all its horribleness on my consoles if I’m looking for something game-related and I don’t want to get up and grab my phone.,

  • SuperSpruce@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    I have a theory that they want you to get so annoyed that you suck it up and pay for premium.

    Instead, I decreased my YouTube consumption, turned on my adblocker for low-quality content, or content from an unmonetized creator, or content showing something technically illegal (game OSTs or a motorcycle review involving going 2x the speed limit), and donated to some patreons and purchased a year of Nebula.

      • Waluigis_Talking_Buttplug@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Vanced got shut down, thats why there’s Revanced.

        Of course Google is going to do everything in their power to hit it. They’re well within their rights to disable accounts associated with these apps, too, btw, they just haven’t yet. It’s always an option if they feel like it though.

  • Ben@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I think YouTube is dying.

    Already, I see many of my favourite channels being restricted (one Ukrainian blogger) whilst the completely moronic, yet dangerous conspiracy theory/Flat-Earthers flourish.

    Meanwhile, the most common thing we see is the push to sign up and pay them - yet with all the censorship (not simply censored for non-paying customers to allow the advertisements) it is not a viable option.

    Thankfully I still use a Desktop - with Firefox and decent extras the actual ads are still not affecting me at all, but YouTube’s policies really are.

    They are completely above the law - they don’t need to respect their own TOS (the reasons many people are blocked is more related to some secret narrative, and it goes against their own stated terms).

    There is no way to appeal outside YouTube, and good luck with any idea of taking them to court for removing your income stream, or censoring a very useful source of information whilst spamming you with algorithms that treat you like Spongebob, and expect you to watch completely moronic content.

    I suggest YouTube is a conspiracy to destroy the world, starting with the world population’s ability to think.

    Convince me I’m wrong ;)

    • Kbobabob@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      the reasons many people are blocked is more related to some secret narrative

      Source?

      • Ben@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        There seem to be many ‘sources’. Youtube have a policy where you can show explosions, you can show guns shooting as long as you can’t see the targets - it’s clearly written. Yet several people are demonetised for showing clips related to Ukraine for a start - and YouTube doesn’t respond to requests to explain, it’s a secretive policy that doesn’t follow the written policy.

        It’s also very easy to find other videos which would more clearly break the actual rules as they are written. Basically, they do have an agenda - it applies to many similar channels - and they keep very quiet about real reasons for doing so, instead quoting some bullshit rule which isn’t true, and doesn’t apply, both at the same time.

  • _pete_@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Quick PSA: they don’t currently block VPNs, so you can sign up for an account in a cheap country (I picked Nigeria) and use a foreign currency debit card (I use Revolut) to get Premium for like £1.50 a month for my entire family.

    If they close that loophole then I think I’ll be done with it, the ads make it basically unusable these days.

  • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Won’t someone think of the trickle down economics?? How will creators get paid!!

  • x1gma@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Same for me on Chromecast, it’s pretty much unwatchable overnight, started probably about a week ago. I’m to lazy to set up adblocking for my full network, and I was fine watching the skippable 15s ads, and the occasional longer ones, but currently I mostly get at least a full minute of ads on my TV.

      • x1gma@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Neat, thank you for the hint - only recently got a ccwgtv, and I’m still not used to the fact that you’re able to install apps like this 😂