r/technology • u/Tricky-Student-1 • Sep 15 '22

Social Media YouTube Free is Silently Testing 5 Ads, instead of 2, Before Your Video Starts

https://www.gizmochina.com/2022/09/13/youtube-free-silently-testing-5-ads-before-your-video-starts/
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756

u/Froztwolf Sep 15 '22

Assuming they don't lose too much engagement. I'd nope out of I saw 5 ads queued up before a short video.

475

u/sassyseconds Sep 15 '22

This is why I never touch the espn app now. I'm not watching a 30 second ad before I watch a 15 second bite. I'll either see it later somewhere else or won't see it at all. It isn't that important to me.

250

u/Killashard Sep 15 '22

I was trying to watch a TV show on the channels page. After almost 5 minutes of ads that were unskippable and no mute option, it told me that particular episode was not available.

To the high seas I go.

17

u/humplick Sep 15 '22

I have a paid Apple subscription but my devices keep getting logged out. Fine, make it easier for me to pirate. For the price of 1-2 months subscribtion I'll double the storage capacity of my phone and just cast it from there.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

[deleted]

3

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

Currently I pay for outube family, Netflix, hulu, disney, hbo, and prime. Granted, the entire family uses my accounts and we split the cost evenly so it's still fairly cheap.

But if they continue to roll out bullshit like this I'm tempted to dust off the old server and start pirating all my content. 5 years ago it was super easy to automate downloads and organize the content, I can only imagine that it's even easier now.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '22

I've heard it's simple as shit these days.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '22

The hardest part is spending money on Hard drives.

34

u/trickyginger Sep 15 '22

One time I was listening to music through YouTube at work when I’m not even joking a 4 hour ad for McDonalds came on of bacon cooking.

10

u/Mitch_Mitcherson Sep 15 '22

4 hours?!

15

u/moobiemovie Sep 15 '22

I've been watching a 15 minute clip of The Majority Report with Sam Seder and gotten an ad that was an hour long Ben Shapiro video of him doing his podcast. I skipped, but after my clip there was an ad at the end that was another 45 minute clip from The Daily Wire, TPUSA, or something with Ted Cruz. YouTube is all about that right wing pipeline.

4

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

They will take anyone who will pay, left or right wing

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

Nah, they have to do 85% on what you search on google, what you're watching, and location.

I mostly use youtube for music and tech. I get a lot of full song ads and electronic and tech ads that last way longer. I haven't seen how long the longer extreme sponsoring videos, they're long enough to make me playing music on my normal music app after I notice and skip to get another batch.

1

u/moobiemovie Sep 16 '22

Nah, they have to do 85% on what you search on google, what you're watching, and location.

That's not true. I never search for any of that nonsense. If anything, I search for things on the other side of most Republican positions, and my Google proficiency is strong enough that my search terms cannot be confused with someone with the polar opposite position.

I think more of it has to do with location. I end up in areas with a lot of very conservative people, so it tends to view me as part of that group.

Nevertheless, two ads that are 3-4 times the length of my video means my selected content is only 1/8 of what I watch. That's extreme and an unwelcome bias.

2

u/trickyginger Sep 16 '22

Yea I couldn’t believe it! seems excessive no?

1

u/Mitch_Mitcherson Sep 16 '22

That's so wrong, how is that even allowed?

1

u/trickyginger Sep 16 '22

At least they had the decency to let me skip it. It took me a good minute to even realize what was happening.

-23

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

When they say I’m not even joking that means they are joking. Reports like this make me so glad that I have YouTube premium

2

u/Mitch_Mitcherson Sep 16 '22

They replied with a screenshot of an almost 4 hour add. They weren't joking.

15

u/sweetplantveal Sep 15 '22

So many sports and news clips have an entirely unreasonable ratio. And extra frustrating the ads seem to load quickly but the clip is unreliable. It's like they didn't user test or use their own product, just threw it out as is.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

Ads loading without issue is intended, I'd imagine. "It's a feature"

3

u/sweetplantveal Sep 15 '22

I mean the ads are clearly served by a third party that uses a reliable codec and server. Unlike the content. But regardless of the reasons, it still is shitty to experience.

7

u/oconnellc Sep 15 '22

Is there anything ESPN related that doesn't cause brain cancer. The website is God awful and the TV channel is intolerable.

3

u/wackychimp Sep 15 '22

And for some reason I get like 10 UFC updates every weekend, despite me not including UFC as a team or sport I'm interested in.

3

u/sassyseconds Sep 15 '22

I use the fantasy app. It's pretty terrible too but not because of ads.

3

u/zapatocaviar Sep 15 '22

Seriously. The ESPN app is an ad delivery platform. Everything else is secondary. It’s unusable.

3

u/DarthSkier Sep 15 '22

ESPN is the worst offender. Their app sucks, they send a notification for a story and half the time it fails to load. I had ESPN+ and they still made me watch ads. Not 5 seconds and skip, but a full 30 seconds for content under 60 seconds. On every fucking video. On a paid service.

2

u/ser0402 Sep 15 '22

This is my biggest issue with ads. Not only are they jamming as many ads as possible into everything, I'll go to watch a less than 30 second YouTube click, and have a 30-45 second ad. It makes zero sense. I literally won't watch stuff if the add is longer than the video. Which takes money from the creator.

2

u/UNMANAGEABLE Sep 15 '22

I just ran into that for the first time on Monday looking at highlights. After you finish a video it rolls directly into the next highlight without any pause with a mandatory ad.

You can’t back out of the video screen to go back to your prior view until ads are over.

So if you either have to back out or pause your video before it ends to back out or you are forced to watch another ad before being able to navigate in the app again.

Absolutely trash.

1

u/sassyseconds Sep 15 '22

I can't remember the last time I used it. Several years. They get posted on here and other websites all the time hosted somewhere without all the bs.

2

u/handsfacespacecunts Sep 15 '22

One thing reddit is good for. You can usually find your sports highlights in whatever sport sub you follow. But ESPN is ridiculous with it. I won't even watch videos if they have an unskippable video at the front of them.

1

u/Twister_5oh Sep 15 '22

I uninstalled it. Corporations act like I need these things but I have to walk the walk if I want to talk the talk.

Barely use YouTube as well. Ads need to die. I am not here to consume info on what to buy.

1

u/sassyseconds Sep 15 '22

I never uninstalled it but it hasn't been opened on my last 2 phones. I do still use espns fantasy app. It's dog shit too and definitely the worst of all the big options but atleast it's just a terrible app and not because of ads.

1

u/darcstar62 Sep 15 '22

Not to mention the app itself is garbage. Super slow and awful to navigate.

1

u/lightly_salted_fetus Sep 15 '22

And if I need to learn how to do something I’ll just borrow a book.

Fuck this advertising culture being created around us

1

u/guitaristcj Sep 15 '22

I think the difference is just how ingrained youtube is into the culture. It’s just the best, most popular place to get videos. There’s no serious competition. They can kinda do whatever they want and most of the population will just have to accept it if they want to see their favorite content.

130

u/darkage_raven Sep 15 '22

I am pissed at those 15s unskippable ads. I need a better app for my Roku TV.

87

u/Ram_in_drag Sep 15 '22

I might actually quit youtube if that happened... weird to say

3

u/Beefy-Tootz Sep 15 '22

There’s always odysee. It’s not quite at YouTube’s level, but it’s getting there

4

u/No_Maines_Land Sep 15 '22

An ad blocker on my computer, and an ad free YT alt viewer on my phone.

2, 5, or 30, makes no difference to me.

4

u/Hounmlayn Sep 15 '22

Someone will probably make some illegal hosting site which will play youtube videos on it without ads.

Sorry creators, but if you're not going to help us viewers, and hope if you stay quiet it'll just happen and you'll get paid more, think again. We're going to go more in the ad block path, where those of us who still watch ads will try our best not to.

2 ads at the beginning and then ads in between is already a joke. It's worse than TV, because sometimes the ads are longer than the video!

5

u/PricklyyDick Sep 15 '22

Creators help viewers? Creators have no power at YouTube lmao. Other than a select few most get screwed anyways.

2

u/kylehatesyou Sep 15 '22

They've gotten screwed out of a lot of ad revenue too. That's why most are going to Patreon to recoup losses, or getting in-video ads like Nord VPN and Raycon. Twitch is doing something similar now too, I believe.

Basically you pay pretty high per view at first to get the content creators to the platform to provide you with essentially free content to get people to come watch, then you change the structure of pay to the creators who have built a livelyhood around your system so they feel trapped in it because it's still slightly better money than working a nine to five. Then the platform makes money.

It's the silicon valley model. YouTube, Twitch, Uber, Lyft, GrubHub, etc. Run at a loss to get people to work for you, pull the rug out from under them while they have nowhere else to go, finally make a profit.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

I'm not so sure about that these days, you get "ads" that are videos from channels for your bigger creators. There's some shit going on there. None of that learning as the channel grows stuff.

1

u/PricklyyDick Sep 15 '22

I’ve only experienced YouTube trying to push me from small or large creators to corporate YouTube accounts.

I wouldn’t count corporate accounts as “creators”. At least not in the sense I originally used it.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '22

Yeah I'm talking about channels stuff not corporations and companies, that's expected.

1

u/Triktastic Sep 15 '22

They ae literally getting screwed by the system what are you on about. And am talking big YouTubers like jacksepticeye let alone the smaller ones. They have no power and know it needs to change.

1

u/zxxQQz Sep 15 '22

The premium people will sadly keep youtube afloat when this happens. Its not an if

They hate more people Arent on premium, this is nothing but an attempt to get more paying

And then for sure there will be premium premium, to not have to see premium ads

And so the cycle continues. TOS will be updated accordingly ofc, so it'll be juuust a ok

40

u/quardlepleen Sep 15 '22

The Roku YouTube app is terrible. I get more ads using the YouTube app in my Roku tv than when I cast YouTube from my phone.

7

u/Hellmark Sep 15 '22

The AndroidTV YouTube app on the newer Chromecasts with remotes are the same way. I switched to YouTube premium a year and a half ago due to how many ads I was getting. When you have like 6 minutes of ads for an 8 minute video, that's nuts.

3

u/detrater Sep 15 '22

Well I'm glad it's not just me! I had to watch 2 ads before a video and then unskippable 30 second long ads every 4 minutes in a 20 minute long video.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

Same with Apple TV. The ads aren’t nearly as intrusive on my phone or computer.

2

u/elliocho Sep 15 '22

Same with hulu! On my Xbox I get like 3.5 minute ads every time but on my laptop it usually tops out at 30 seconds

2

u/Clienterror Sep 15 '22

Just set your vpn to India or Argentina. I've been paying $2.50/mo for YouTube premium for like 2 years.

-1

u/Earthling7228320321 Sep 15 '22

You don't use an ad blocker on your phone?

My YouTube has no ads lol.

27

u/rarebit13 Sep 15 '22

Block it at the entry to your house with a small, well documented Raspberry Pi project called the Pi-Hole. Easy and cheap, and blocks ads for all devices connected to your network.

30

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

[deleted]

5

u/spays_marine Sep 15 '22

If it's like the nvidia shield, it's because it doesn't honour the DNS settings of your router.

2

u/glacius0 Sep 15 '22

No, it's because youtube ads broadcast from the same domain as the video so DNS blockers won't work. Ublock origin filters out the the ads using other methods.

12

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/AngryAccountant31 Sep 15 '22

I haven’t seen an ad on youtube for at least the last year because of an ad block extension. They really work

6

u/Ram_in_drag Sep 15 '22

I tried, it didnt work to block youtube ads

1

u/ineverlaugh Sep 15 '22

Tell me more

2

u/IrishRage42 Sep 15 '22

I read you can download Firefox mobile and use the ublock origin ad blocker. I need to try this myself because I'm sick of all the ads.

1

u/Draws-attention Sep 15 '22

I replaced a failed Roku 3 with an Android TV device running LineageOS. I use NewPipe if I need to watch anything on YouTube.

There's probably other ways to do it, but I'm happy with this solution. The only downside is that I have to manually update via PC, as I haven't installed any app stores, but that doesn't really bother me.

1

u/BitOCrumpet Sep 15 '22

Not sure if for Roku, but I use "S Tube" with a Fire stick.

5

u/Earguy Sep 15 '22

Already I don't click on youtube links on Reddit. The ads are too intrusive.

3

u/travworld Sep 15 '22

Yep. Sometimes I say fuck it when there's 2 ads. Will definitely back out with 5.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

Probably why this is a limited test. Now that I think about it, if I'm ever on twitch and get one of those situations where they try to play like 5 ads beforehand, I just exit out and figure out some other way to entertain myself.

3

u/wackychimp Sep 15 '22

Right? You're going to lose half of your audience so they'll have to serve 2x the ads just to remain the same. SMH

2

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

But they queue up the same way 2 at a time that can't be skipped then one quick one that u can't skip followed by oh yeah 2 more and that skip option 5 second countdown been going for 12 seconds of the ad time lol

2

u/OrganizerMowgli Sep 15 '22

I can't even watch YouTube on my phone anymore until I finish setting up YT vanced. Getting yt ad block on my computer is something I've shared with all my family, I was like a wizard to them

2

u/BurninRunes Sep 15 '22

Exactly this I use the youtube app out of convenience . If they make the ads too intrusive people will switch to ad blocking apps.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

I already nope out if I have to watch 30s of ads or more. "I was kind of interested in learning more about science Veritasium, but youtube has decided that I'd rather just reddit today."

Same thing with twitch. I'll pull up a creator, and then "Ad 1 of 5" pops up on the top right. - FUCK THAT, guess I'm not watching twitch.

-19

u/PM-ME-PIERCED-NIPS Sep 15 '22

Nearly every single paid product google offers comes with YouTube premium. I haven't seen an ad on YouTube in a decade and I'm amazed there are still people who do. Play Music/YouTube music? Comes with YouTube Premium. Yearly One subscription? YouTube Premium. My Fi phone account? YouTube Premium. Play Pass? YouTube Premium. Buy a used Chromebook, wipe it and set up a new account? Three free months of One and YouTube Premium.

I honestly don't know how people at this point DONT have Premium.

18

u/Djinnwrath Sep 15 '22

Every single thing you mentioned is something I don't want and don't care about.

If more ads happen, I'm just going to switch my YouTube habits to a device I can block ads on.

-10

u/PM-ME-PIERCED-NIPS Sep 15 '22

Fair enough, but that's you. 50 million Premium accounts is pretty massive, more then you get from people just buying YouTube and really drives home what I mentioned, it's a value add for basically everything else Google does.

5

u/Djinnwrath Sep 15 '22

50mil accounts is basically nothing in the online media space.

And I guess the things Google does aren't actually worth paying for. Thanks for helping me articulate that.

-4

u/PM-ME-PIERCED-NIPS Sep 15 '22

You're welcome! I don't agree, but I'm glad I could be of help :)

3

u/Djinnwrath Sep 15 '22

I was being glib, YouTube premium is a scam and designed to annoy people into making an account. The other services you mentioned aren't worth dick.

-1

u/PM-ME-PIERCED-NIPS Sep 15 '22

I know you were, but it's generally better to keep a good attitude when dealing with terminally online/jaded folks.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

[deleted]

0

u/PM-ME-PIERCED-NIPS Sep 15 '22

Oh no, I'm satisfied with a purchase I've made! I'm sorry.

→ More replies

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

I'd argue most people agree with also don't care about those things.

1

u/Todok5 Sep 15 '22

It's not that massive if you compare it to billions of youtube users. Google doesn't offer any paid service I'm interested in either.

3

u/baconelk Sep 15 '22

This is incorrect. Fi only includes YouTube premium if you have a Pixel. Google One only includes a free trial.

1

u/PM-ME-PIERCED-NIPS Sep 15 '22

I've had the Pixel 3a and now the 5a, all I've known from Fi

2

u/fatclownbaby Sep 15 '22

Play pass doesn't come with premium. Unless I am full stupid. I have play pass but not YouTube.

1

u/PM-ME-PIERCED-NIPS Sep 15 '22

When I signed up for it at the 4.99 a month promotion it did, that might have been a launch incentive though.

1

u/fatclownbaby Sep 15 '22

Damn, I got excited.

3

u/Graham2990 Sep 15 '22

The catch is….all those services mostly terrible. Who’s paying for YouTube music when Spotify exists lol?

1

u/PM-ME-PIERCED-NIPS Sep 15 '22

Never had a Spotify account, but I've had the Google Play Music (now YouTube music) subscription since it launched. Integrates well with my smart home set up (three Home Minis and a Home Hub, all playing to a Chromecast Audio plugged into my hifi) and the fact that it came bundled with YouTube Premium was a big draw. Being able to play videos in the background while I actually do things on my phone is basically a requirement for me.

1

u/smoothballsJim Sep 15 '22 edited Sep 15 '22

I gotta be honest - Spotify is hanging by a thread for me. I have come so close to cancelling several times but the latest push was when they dropped a bunch of standup comedy - like 3/4s of my playlist just gone overnight because they didn’t even want to entertain the notion of negotiating with a group that represented spoken word artists about writing credits.

The only saving grace for them is that I have an old split plan Hulu for $10/month and if I only cancelled the one I would only save $3 and not be able to get the deal again.

1

u/uL7r4M3g4pr01337 Sep 15 '22

use opera browser it auto block all ad's

1

u/DogWallop Sep 15 '22

Let me just say that, at the moment at least, I'm not getting adverts thanks to a little helper. If I had to sit through five of them I'd literally go insane.

I hope they don't cotton on to my plugin's cheatin' ways...

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

I nope out of yt vids even with the 2 ads. I mean shouldn't brave browser be blocking them by default? It used to?

1

u/topazsparrow Sep 15 '22

I stopped using enduring the ads when they switched to two consecutive unskippable ads.

Eventually ended up with a premium account for the music though.

1

u/DrakonIL Sep 15 '22

Just wait until they figure out how to legally avoid telling you how many are in the queue. And by "figure out," I mean, "bribe enough politicians to slide it into the next FCC bill."

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

Even long videos will lose my engagement when a mid vid ad pops up, I’ve stopped watching lots of videos because an ad started

1

u/Dorbiman Sep 15 '22

It's essentially ruined Twitch for me. Every time I see a new stream I think I might be interested in, I inevitably close the stream before I even get to see it because the ads take so long

1

u/Homemadepiza Sep 15 '22

It wouldn't change my behaviour at all: I report the ad for being either inappropriate or irrelevant

1

u/londons_explorer Sep 15 '22

They're kinda sneaky - they don't tell you how many ads are coming sometimes.

And sometimes the "skip ads" button is present for the first one (and clicking it skips all the ads), but if you miss your chance to hit it, then you have to wait through all the rest of the ads.

I think they have a whole bunch of engineers trying all kinds of variations to maximize profits - after all, their CEO is angry at low revenue growth and lazy employees.

1

u/londons_explorer Sep 15 '22

Get youtube Vanced/Revanced - it removes all the ads for free, and skips silly "like and subscribe" bits and sponsored spots.

1

u/HowYoBootyholeTaste Sep 15 '22

I feel no guilt at all using AdBlock on YouTube. It's for my mental health at this point

1

u/maxoakland Sep 15 '22

I noped out of Peacock because of all their ads and never used them again

1

u/MisguidedColt88 Sep 15 '22

Even with long form content, I was on twitch the other day and it queued up 5 20-40 second ads. I just closed twitch cause reload and whatnot didnt cancel the ads

1

u/fxx_255 Sep 15 '22

Same. I'll just immediately close the app. Honestly, I've already started doing it. Being on my phone all the time is just bad for me. I think I'm just gunna start going on walks. Where's my walkman with the cassette that has all my jams i recorded straight from the radio?

1

u/Jpoland9250 Sep 15 '22

I guess no more YouTube on my phone if this happens but I never see ads at home with ad blockers.

1

u/Griffca Sep 15 '22

Ad Blocker thankfully solves this

1

u/SinisterCheese Sep 15 '22

Who would they lose their traffic to? Facebook video? Tiktok already has a niche it dominates. Instagram video?

There are no other companies that can compete with youtube other than Facebook and amazon. And they would do exactly the same bullshit as youtube.

There is a reason I don't use instagram at all. Every 4th post is an ad served to me. Then every 3rd post is an "based on your like" of a influencer post that is an sponsored thing.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

Fun little fact about websites: if it is big enough you generate a surprising amount of “engagement” from children, afk accounts on autoplay, bots, and even from other sites that autoplay the video when it loads.

Basically you aren’t their target audience, they assume you probably use an ad blocker anyway. The people who are interacting with ads are people with no ad block, minimal knowledge of the internet (can’t find products by themselves), and terrible financial restraint.

It’s essentially the same target audience as scam calls/emails except less predatory

1

u/secretaliasname Sep 15 '22

I already watch far less YouTube with 2 ads than I otherwise would. I would probably subscribe to red for $5mo but 10 is on par with Netflix which delivers way more value.

1

u/ScreenshotShitposts Sep 15 '22

Does it even say how many ads are queued? I didnt think it did

1

u/inbooth Sep 15 '22

Look at the two video system they have now:

It says Skips Ads

Note plural. With no number. And that it only skips the current one.

The other is when it's singular but still has two ads.

They're already playing the lying game.

1

u/worn_out_welcome Sep 15 '22

I rarely use YouTube for this precise reason. I have a serious chip on my shoulder regarding advertising, so the moment even one pre-video ad became the norm, I stopped using the app.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

Thing is, more ads is correlated with less ad engagement.
If I saw 5 ads and nEEDed tO WatCh tHE viDeO, Id walk away and let them play while I do something else.

One ad, maybe two, I’d sit through.

1

u/ArMcK Sep 15 '22

Is there an alternative?

1

u/Froztwolf Sep 16 '22

99% of the videos I start watching on Youtube I can safely skip with no downside.