YouTube is undoubtedly one of the go-to places for people to consume content, and most of the creators making a living on the platform do so thanks to the presence of ads. Now, in a first, YouTube is looking to ban the use of ad-blockers—which restrict advertising revenue for the company—and reduce the amount creators take home.
According to a report by Android Police, YouTube is testing an ad-blocker blocking feature. While browsing YouTube, a user on Reddit saw a popup that said, “Ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube." The popup also offered an easy way to sign up for YouTube Premium, which is a paid ad-free experience. It highlighted that ads allow billions of users to enjoy YouTube for free and asked the Reddit user to “Allow YouTube ads" in their ad-blocking software.
Later, the YouTube team confirmed that this is a limited test. So far, only a single report of the test has come out, but it is more than likely that YouTube could be looking to solve the ad-blocker menace once and for all, as it affects the revenue for both the company and creators.
Last year, the San Bruno-based organization also killed off YouTube Vanced, a third-party YouTube client that allowed users to get access to premium YouTube features, including an ad-free experience for free on Android devices.
Moving forward, YouTube is looking to push YouTube Premium to more users and promote an ad-free experience. It has also been testing a feature that restricts higher quality 1080p video only to paying subscribers.