YouTube users are now seeing 90-second unskippable ads (Updated: Official statement)
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Users on Reddit are reporting that they're now seeing 90-second unskippable ads on YouTube's TV app, even as policy restricts them to 30 seconds.
  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
    851·
    2 months ago

    Youtube: “GOD PEOPLE KEEP SKIPPING ADS, WHAT CAN WE DO TO STOP THIS LOSS OF REVENUE?!”

    Viewers: “Maybe have standards for length and content and moderate the platform to prevent malicious actors?”

    Youtube: “I KNOW, I’LL JUST MAKE FORCED ADS LONGER AND MORE OBNOXIOUS!”

    Viewers: “JUST MODERATE YOUR FUCKING PLATFORM, YOU HAVE THE MONEY AND RESOURCES TO FUCKING DO IT”

    Youtube: “Users are just so selfish and entitled, trying to skip ads…”

    Viewers: " Fuck it installs ublock origin

  • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    561·
    2 months ago

    Hmm somehow i havent ever gotten those kinds of ads… maybe because im using ublock? Must be something else, i am just the chosen one.

    • Victor@lemmy.worldEnglish
      26·
      2 months ago

      If you just click into the article you are absolutely blasted with statement after statement that this is only for TVs. Obviously if you have an ad blocker you wouldn’t see ads. 🙂

        • wltr@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          14·
          2 months ago

          I have Pi-Hole for like ten years maybe, they cannot stop the YouTube ads since, idk, at least five years, maybe more.

          • IratePirate@feddit.orgEnglish
            7·
            2 months ago

            I’ve read that YT is injecting the ads directly into the video stream, i.e. the source is not ads.someshittycompany.com, but rather videos.google.com (which you cannot block for obvious reasons). The only solution to kill ads is to use addons like uBlock or client software like Freetube, Newpipe and the like that strip out the ads in some other way.

        • Victor@lemmy.worldEnglish
          14·
          2 months ago

          Yes, Pihole can solve that. “Normal” people don’t have Piholes though. And “normal” people really do purchase televisions, and install the YouTube app and watch videos with it.

    • nprevail_@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      Nebula exists. Curiosity Stream exists. PeerTube exists. Odysee exits. The people I value on YT already have footholds on all four. More will arrive soon enough.

      Exactly my thoughts too.

    • boonhet@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      Yes. You will quit YouTube. But 99% of people won’t and they make YouTube more revenue via either watching more ads or giving up and subscribing

        • boonhet@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          0·
          2 months ago

          None of those have all the creators and people don’t want to go between multiple apps.

          This fight is lost. The way to win it now is legislation or blowing up data centers.

            • Auli@lemmy.caEnglish
              0·
              2 months ago

              None of those well ever compare to youtube. You think all the videos are going to stay on those platforms forever? You think they well scale to youtube levels of users?

                • boonhet@sopuli.xyzEnglish
                  0·
                  2 months ago

                  You can also contribute to PipeLine, it’s a desktop client that aggregates YouTube and a few others. And it’s written in Rust.

                  The issue with YouTube is the network effect though. Even if you can get a lot of users to use one of those multi platform clients, it’s still hard to get the creators to leave. And till they stay, the users stay.

        • wewbull@feddit.ukEnglish
          0·
          2 months ago

          Can somebody explain peertube for me? It sounds like it should be a federated video service, but either the federation doesn’t work very well or there’s nothing on it.

  • Hond@piefed.socialEnglish
    26·
    2 months ago

    Well, i wont watch ads. If it comes to it i’d rather have a program thats recording videos in real time so i can skip the ad segments later in my recording like in the good old vhs times.

    • Victor@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      2 months ago

      This should only become a necessary solution if YouTube invents a way to inject ads directly into the video stream of the video you’re watching, like old school broadcasting.

    • Wild_Mastic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      That was what my grandpa also did many years ago, he was living in the future! Or we’re going backward.

    • hayvan@piefed.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      uBlock Origin and revanced are still effective at blocking. Sponsorskip (available as a Firefox plugin or built into revanced) even skip sponsored segments inside videos!

        • zerozaku@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          Revanced might be dead?

          Revanced is not dead. Revanced Extended(RvX) was discontinued and rebooted with the new name Morphe. Both are two different projects and both are alive.

  • r00ty@kbin.life
    21·
    2 months ago

    The enshittification will continue until… No man, it’ll just continue.

  • 87Six@lemmy.zipEnglish
    20·
    2 months ago

    I just realised i haven’t watched a single ad in like 2 years

    Thanks ublock origin!

  • BillCheddar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    19·
    2 months ago

    When you see the long ad, just close the fuckin’ browser window. Immediately. And then use something else.

    They’ll only get the point and change if you stop giving them your eyeballs for shit you don’t wanna see.

  • WanderWisley@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    2 months ago

    It’s not just the unskippable ads but also the type of ads as well. I’ve seen some wild ones like ads to make you hard in the bedroom, but it never actually shows the treatment. I’ve seen ads for how to make “homemade” makeup to look younger, the ingredients are baking soda and honey? But I think the wildest one I’ve seen is an ad for a robot puppy but in the ad, you can clearly see it is a real puppy, but they keep saying that it is a robotic AI powered puppy.

  • Brewchin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    2 months ago

    SmartTube is pretty good on AndroidTV: SponsorBlock, DeArrow, no ads, etc.

    At least while we’re still able to sideload… 😔

    • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      2 months ago

      At least while we’re still able to sideload install normally… 😔

      FTFY. Being restricted to a manufacturer’s ‘approved’ list of apps is not normal, and should be called “cuckinstalling” or something similarly pathetic and offensive.

    • Lemmayng@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      Seconded.

      Unfortunately doesn’t stop Google from screwing with third-party YouTube apps now and then. Had a few instances where SmartTube would not load all the channels I’m “subscribed to”, but an update fixes that instantly.

    • zerozaku@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      At least while we’re still able to sideload… 😔

      We still can sideload even after the side loading changes, although in quite annoying fashion, but will still be possible.

      • Brewchin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        This is a fair point. But I thought there was some uncertainty surrounding signed binaries, Play force-scanning APKs (regardless of source), and such?

  • TerdFerguson@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    2 months ago

    I accidentally found myself outside my ad blocking bubble the other day and looking at youtube. It immediately pissed me off to have to put up with.

  • Grostleton@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    12·
    2 months ago

    Sometimes I get an empty video player for 5-10s before the video starts, still better than looking at an ad ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    • mschae@discuss.mschae23.deEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      That’s one of YouTube’s anti-adblocking measures. As far as I know, it only happens on a “cold” load (like when opening a YouTube video by going to its URI directly). You can avoid it by navigating to it from within the YT interface.

      Funnily enough, the time you have to wait is still shorter than the ad you would’ve had to watch.

  • twinnie@feddit.ukEnglish
    12·
    2 months ago

    Why are these companies wanting to pay to infuriate me? If I want to watch something and I’m suddenly interrupted by a 90 second unskippable intrusion I’m not going to have a positive relationship with your company.

    • Nollij@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Most ads aren’t directly tied to a sales goal. Instead they work on brand recognition. IOW, when you are at the grocery store, you think of Coke in general rather than any specific ads. And when you’re looking for a new car, Ford’s marketing is constantly in the back of your mind.

      Combined with the tsunami of marketing everyone faces every single day, few of these ads stand out. You likely don’t turn down buying Coke because of how invasive their ads are.