You told us: You'll keep trying to block ads after YouTube crackdown

YouTube started testing a three-strikes policy for people using ad blockers earlier this year. The company broadly rolled out this policy late last month, effectively barring viewers from using ad blockers.

That got us wondering what you’ll do now that Google is expanding this policy. We posed this question to readers last week, and here’s what you told us.

YouTube is blocking ad blockers: What will you do?

Results

Almost 2,300 votes were counted in this poll as of writing, and it turns out that a massive 63.1% of respondents say they’ll try ad-blocking methods for as long as they work.

It looks like YouTube isn’t able to adequately block all ad blockers, so we can see why respondents would keep trying different ad-blocking solutions for now.

In second place with 25.7% of the vote were the surveyed readers who said they’d quit YouTube and use an alternative. But there aren’t exactly any major alternatives to YouTube right now, save for the likes of DailyMotion and Vimeo. So I’m personally expecting most of these readers to keep using YouTube in some capacity.

Otherwise, 5.9% of respondents said they’d subscribe to YouTube Premium in the wake of this policy. Finally, 5.28% of surveyed readers said they’d keep watching YouTube for free with ads.

Comments

• Matt Booth: I’ve found another alternative that they can’t detect and still blocks ads. I will not be forced to watch YouTube ads. They were ok to start with but now they’re really egregious and just get in the way.
• christopher woodhead: IF there were only ads at the start of videos then I wouldn’t use Adblock. But when there are ads 2 or 3 times throughout a video then I’m using Adblock.
• Paul: Google have managed to kill every ounce of goodwill I had for them in one fell swoop. I’d like to see the company broken up and I have now taken steps already to start using other companies offerings where possible…. And the adverts which I’ve seen on what I considered to be there within tolerable adverts, I will now start boycotting the advertisers. I don’t do business with people pointing a shotgun at me. They suck, simple as that
• Rashad: If YouTube didn’t have such egregious ads then it wouldn’t necessarily be an issue. The 10 minute ads that can’t be skipped are an issue and the type of ads that are being presented are also an issue. Nothing wrong with a 10 second ad that can’t be skipped or a 30 second ad that can be skipped after a few seconds. The 10 minute unskippable ads and the videos that have multiple ads suck the worst. Also, if I pay for an ad free YouTube I also don’t want to see sponsorship in videos. Just my opinion.
• Mace Moneta: I never used Tiktok until this ad nonsense became egregious. No ads on Tiktok, so I’ll waste some time there. I realized that a lot of what I watched on YouTube were actually ads to begin with (movie trailers, show trailers, product reviews), so putting ads on ads was more than I was willing to tolerate.
• PeteFrmNY: honestly, if you watch a lot of youtube… how did you think that content was able to sustain itself? Ad revenue is the biggest driver of dollars on the platform. I hate ads to I pay for YT Premium. I watch a couple of hours of YT content per day so the value is there for me. I also get YT Music in the subscription price. Is it perfect? No. But if the choice is $15 for spotify and watch ads on YT or $15 for YT Music and no ads in YT, the winner is obvious
• Pfunk: We have the YouTube family plan. Shared with 6 people, it’s reasonable. Plus we share family purchased movies and games. For us, worth it.
• Dave Xcells: There are at least 3 ways to get around it. Nice try YouTube, better luck next time.