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YouTube ads?

NutmegCT

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Last year I'd occasionally be irritated when a YouTube video would be preceded by a 30 second "ad", which I could usually skip after five seconds.

In the last several days, I've noticed that nearly every YT video I choose, it's preceded by a one minute ad, with no option to skip.

Being the frugal type (!), I checked into YouTube Premium (which used to be called YouTube Red). It's $12 per month. Benefits last year included "no ads" - but didn't say if that meant no "preceding video" ads, or just no static ads on a page.

I just read on several tech sites, that YT is now going to push ads onto many more videos, whether you're on YouTube Premium or not. This is nuts for us lowly YT viewers - but YT admits the Premium service brought in only 1.5 million subscriptions, so they need to increase revenue by putting in more ads regardless.

My choices: join YT Premium at $12 month and *hope* the video ads disappear.

or

Stop using YT completely except in time of dire need!

Edit: wow, I just chose a YT video on the latest Windows update. In addition to a 30 second non-skippable ad for an "fake IP" service, when the actual video started, I got two more popups covering the video. One for "Join this channel cheap!" and the other "Membership fee reduced - click here!"

Good grief.

Your thoughts?

Thanks.
Tom M.
(Really, folks, with the evening TV news being 17 minutes of news and 13 minutes of commercials, and with websites including popups with "subscribe to our email newsletter!" and "take a survey!", none of which can be stopped with an ad blocker ... this is getting ridiculous. Idiocracy's ad-dominated TV and internet rides again. Printed news on a sheet of paper gets more and more appealing; print ads don't pop up on top of the article you're reading.)
 
OP
NutmegCT

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The fun never ends! As I got to the mid point of that 15 minute video I wanted to watch, *another* video ad started up, ran for a minute, then my chosen video ran for five minutes and finished. I'm about to cut the cable folks. This is really sad.
 

dklawson

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I have also noticed and experienced everything you mentioned... except I never considered for a moment buying a premium seat.

Yes, it is annoying. However, I think we all knew at the beginning of the Internet age that everything could not remain free forever. At one time white-pages phone lookups were free. That's almost gone. Newspapers frequently had free online content... that's going. YouTube has become huge and has to pay for itself somehow. I'll grind my teeth and wait patiently through the adds and hope that it doesn't get worse.
 

DavidApp

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I watch YT but get to it through the Opera browser. That seems to cut out a lot of the adverts. Most of the videos have the Subscribe now etc on them. In fact I notice on a lot of News sites they say "We notice you are using an add blocker" and they have 2 boxes with disable blocker on one or continue to site on the other.
I notice that when I use my FREE Verizon tablet to watch YT I get all the adverts. The Free tablet cost us another line subscription what they hid in the mumnbo jumbo of the sign up for the new phone. Canceling the line would only cost us about the same as the cost of a tablet. Can't win.

David
 

JPSmit

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If it is free on the internet, you aren't the customer, you are the product.
 

Mickey Richaud

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NutmegCT

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Thus, to avoid the invasive and obnoxious problems, I should avoid the WWW unless I actually need it.

Aha!

Think I'll try that for a while.
 

pdplot

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My mother said it many years ago - you will someday pay for what you now get for nothing. Then came cable TV. You paid a monthly fee to be free of ads. What happened? You still pay for cable but now there are ads. And ads. And ads.
 
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NutmegCT

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Paul - a corollary to what you point out: us "mature" folks remember when TV wasn't inundated with ads. Today's kids, at least the ones I work with, have given up on TV due to the constant interruption of ads, and stick to their "hand held devices" Still lots of ads, but easier to "swipe to something more entertaining".
 

JPSmit

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Paul - a corollary to what you point out: us "mature" folks remember when TV wasn't inundated with ads. Today's kids, at least the ones I work with, have given up on TV due to the constant interruption of ads, and stick to their "hand held devices" Still lots of ads, but easier to "swipe to something more entertaining".

Or perhaps the memory fades. The reality is that from about the second day of TV broadcasts it was only and ever a way of selling things - of getting people to watch commercials by allowing them to watch harmless amusements in between
 
OP
NutmegCT

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Or perhaps the memory fades. The reality is that from about the second day of TV broadcasts it was only and ever a way of selling things - of getting people to watch commercials by allowing them to watch harmless amusements in between

Memory? What memory ...

But if you watch a video of a 1958 TV western, you discover there were only about 7 minutes of ads for each 30 minutes of show. Today it's closer to 13 minutes of ads in 30 minutes.

I'll PM you an example.
 

PAUL161

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Remember The Texaco Hour with Milton Berle? A fella walks out on stage with a little table and promotes Texaco products, leaves the stage and the show goes on. Later they had the Texaco singers. And this guy.:applause: Sorry, you youngsters probably won't remember it.


View attachment 57130
 

Mickey Richaud

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THE SCHNOZ! "Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash - wherever you are!"
 
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Was watching some old Dragnet episodes the other night, they all ran right about 25-26 minutes, which means when first run there were only 4-5 minutes of ads per half hour. What really annoys me now is when they keep a show running but use the bottom third of the screen to advertise upcoming shows and sponsors. That seems to be the current future, just run them all the time under the shows.
 
OP
NutmegCT

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Mike - funny thing to me, is that we now have "wide angle" TV screens. But during local news and weather, the bottom 25% is all ads and "updates" scrolling across.

But the scrolling stops when an actual commercial starts!
 
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