YouTube won’t let you watch videos if you use an ad blocker

After years of not worrying about ad blockers, YouTube he seems finally determined to declare war on them. According to the fee 9to5GooglePlatform will prevent video playback in its web version when browser extensions such as AdBlock or similar are found.

The measure caught those who stumbled upon a banner warning of the blockade by surprise. From what you can see in the images, those covered by this new definition have two options for continuing to use the site: disable YouTube ad blocker or subscribe to YouTube Premium.

“YouTube ad blockers are banned,” reads a message that has begun to surface on the platform. The post also points out that ads keep the service free for billions of users around the world. Although, in addition, it offers you to subscribe to the Premium option to avoid ads and still help monetize content creators.

While YouTube hasn’t made any public comment about it, a company official confirmed to the r/YouTube subreddit that they’ve begun testing the feature. Nevertheless, He assured that so far this is just an experiment..

As an experimental feature, the ad blocker ban will likely affect a small number of YouTube users. At least for now. However, the problem can quickly change (and escalate) if the video platform decides to include it in its final product.

YouTube will stop turning a blind eye to ad blockers

For now, there will be no choice but to wait. These experiments can be carried out for several weeks before deciding whether to abandon them or continue their development and implementation. However, it is more than clear that this definition reopens the old controversy about the use of online advertising.

For those who consume a lot of YouTube content on a daily basis, a Premium subscription is a one-way route. However, it is likely that the most casual user of the platform realizes that paying for a subscription is not worth it.. In Spain, the individual plan costs €11.99 per month and the family plan costs €17.99 per month. In other countries, such as the US, a family subscription is even more expensive and costs $22.99 today.

While YouTube Premium boasts downloads, background playback, and the inclusion of Music Premium in the package, its biggest feature is the lack of ads in videos. And unless you’re consuming many hours of material on a daily basis, paying that amount of money per month just to remove ads isn’t something everyone is willing to settle for.

Added to this is that YouTube dramatically increased the number of commercials he shows before, during and after content playback. Which led many to turn to ad blockers, extensions that have been the subject of heated debate over the years.

What will this story be like? Will this be the end of YouTube ad blockers? Will the platform be able to incentivize new Premium subscriptions? Or will it end in nothing? So far, these are unanswered questions. but stay tuned for news.