As part of what it calls a global effort, the video platform is making it impossible for users to block advertising. The company now prompts viewers to disable their ad-block software or buy YouTube Premium if they want to disable ads.
The crackdown is a long time coming. Back in June, YouTube began restricting ad-block software in certain regions, saying that after three videos the video player would be blocked unless users disabled their ad-block software. Ad-blocking software is popular for YouTube users who don’t want to sit through advertising before they can watch a video. The crackdown could push some viewers into YouTube Premium.
The $13.99 subscription service is already used by at least 80 million people, and Google, YouTube’s parent company, has plans to improve those numbers. The service lets users watch videos without advertising, stream music, download videos and stream videos at a higher resolution. The move to limit ad-blocking technology comes as more tech companies increase the prevalence of ads on their platforms. Nearly every streaming service, where the lack of ads used to be the draw, has implemented advertising-free tiers for a little extra.