Corporations are not your Friends: A Story in Two Parts

Only 69.99 per month week.

Minute watched

No ads so far here but I definitely will cancel Premium if I start seeing ads. That’s literally the only thing I’m paying for.

These are screenshots and don’t prove anything.

I'm continuing apologising for premium exclusively because it pays creators more, and more consistently. I never go on the internet without all the adblocks possible, the sight of an add makes me irrationally angry. I'm still paying for premium

I have a youtube premium account. Used to just use u-block but my computer is non-functional and I now primarily consume media on my ipad so I got a subscription. So far I have not had any ads. Working on getting a new pc and coming back to the light

okay the adderall is kicking in so, sorry if this is a massive wall of text, but since you asked, adblockers are great, I never use the web without one when I can, but ads are only one part of why i pay for YouTube.

here are all my reasons:

• easy adless YouTube on non-android smart TV
• YouTube music (dont have to pay for Spotify)
• auto background video downloading to save on mobile data when I leave the house
• supports more creators (albeit in smaller amounts) than I could ever afford to support via patreon or merch (and supports them directly proportionally to how much I watch thier content, so I never risk paying a creator that ive lost interest in or forgetting to add a creator's patreon)

I would never try to convince someone else to pay for YouTube, it's defintily not for everyone, especially when a decent adblocker will satisfy most people. But for some people like me, it just makes sense, and I don't understand why some people get so mad to learn I'm paying for it.

Google is a gross company for sure, hell except for YouTube ive pretty much completly degoogled my life. I can use Plex for movies and shows, Proton for mail and calandar, magic earth for GPS, Firefox and DDG for search, etc. but there isnt a good replacement for YouTube especially since its one of my main hobbies. peertube and other video hosting sites really just dont compare for my usecase

ofc I think its shitty that theyre trialing showing ads to premium users in Germany, but honestly that would barely affect me if it was happening where I live. I use adblockers everywhere except my TV, so most of the time it'd be impossible for me to see an ad whether YouTube tried to serve me one or not.

if you were genuinly asking what people who pay for YouTube have to say about this, I hope that answered your question

I have yt premium because my view counts as 1000x an ad supported view does.

I still end up using yt-dlp because playback in firefox is ass.

Uhh I don't care who doesn't pay for YTP or just blocks them, seems like an odd thing to care about?

I do have grandfathered $7/mo GPM (YTM) which comes with free YTP and I've yet to see ads at all. I don't even get ads on my linked gaming YT account. This kinda seems like misinformation?

If you think paying $10+ for Spotify instead of $7 YTM+YTP then yes, you are a fucking idiot.

You're lying. I can't imagine this so it must be false!

'Tis true

Mixed truth. They carried broadcast networks that always had ads. Fox, NBC, ABC all had ads.
Comcast would even overwrite one or two of the network ads with their own ads. A commercial break would start, some life insurance BS would start playing audio compressed all to hell so it's twice as loud, at the end, you'd catch 5 seconds of some toy commercial and then one or two other regular network commercials.

Premium channels like HBO didn't have 'ads,' but they did have station identification and self-promotion for what's coming to the platform in the near future. They wouldn't break the movies up, though, only in between. A few standouts didn't start with ads like Nickelodeon, but eventually got them.

Saturday cartoons on USA and TNT certainly had ads from day one.

Our national tv channel is lawfully barred from running commercials.

They just changed the definition of ads they run to "messages of commercial importance" or some dumb shit like that. And just like that, ads on the national channel are suddenly a-ok

Talk about looking at the past with distorting rose-colored glasses!

Ad revenue is like crack to corporations. I think Google needs an intervention.

I for see Premium Deluxe this coming 2028.

Premium# coming in 2032 for truly truly truly ad-free experience.
Premium#+ coming in 2034 for truly truly truly ad-free experience.
...

It's convenient timing that Google Chrome is removing support for ad blocking plugins like uBlock right as Premium sneaks ads back in... 🙄

I think that would be the death of the platform

I'm even wondering how people can use it as it is without ad blockers or clients like newpipe

Every time I use it on not-my-device I'm losing my nerves, because I have to watch at least 2 ads for a 1min video, when I want to show someone something

There's still the step where Youtube has Spotify level ads. Whatever the visual equivalent of bait-and-switch-fav-song/LISTENTOMYPODCAST/oh-god-are-those-sirens-behind-me is.

Premium Lite is hilarious branding. "Oh, it's high quality, but like, less. Quality Lite"

I think you are right. And the OP look like they are in Germany where they are testing these plans. https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/17/24272930/youtube-cheaper-premium-lite-subscription-limited-ads

You could also recreate this by using revanced to change the banner to yt premium but forgetting to apply the ad block patch

paying attention.

They couldn't afford to after paying for yootoob premium.

To be fair google could have one of those days since workplace accident boards but for bad youtube decisions.

I'd be surprised if it hit 3 digits.

Only in Germany in a test of a lower Premium plan so far.

When they stop getting paid.

When there is a viable alternative

VPN to a country with a lower cost, and sign up there. It used to be Turkey and India, where you could get a Family Plan for like $2/mo - but they’ve cracked down a bit on it.

We use YT for so much in our ‘household’ that it made sense to pool together and get Premium, and honestly it feels good having ~5 people who consume a tonne of content ad-free for nearly no cost while still supporting our preferred content creators.

Third party clients have entered the chat

Why would you pay for YouTube and then get an ad blocker? Seems redundant.

Also, YouTube has begun integrating ads server side, making them more difficult to parse out.

Better: quit youtube premium, get an adblocker and live life hassle free

The third part is youtube keeps implementing more sophisticated ad blocking to the point you can't block ads..

All of history from corporations becoming a thing to present day.

Corporations are people. The problem is that people are selfish greedy assholes.

Yeah, 20€ instead of 13 for me

Yeah, the daymy I see an ad is the day I cancel my subscription

Premium doesn't mean private

I've had some hideous collection of ABP, ublock, and some extension that hides all shorts all on chrome and I've somehow completely dodged all the drama in the past year. I've never had to manually update or fiddle with any settings. I've seen all the crap everyone else is getting, and I constantly think its right around the corner,, but nothing. Sometimes the page loads funny and just shows a black rectangle, and i think welp they finally got to me, but an immediate refresh always fixes it. Maybe one day I'll have to deal with it

Me on my home lab Invidious instance: What are “ads”?

Me on my firestick with smarttube: What are “ads”?

...or else it gets the hose again???

Do? No! Evil!