YouTube begins global crackdown on ad-blockers

Despite the wide use of ad-blockers over the years, YouTube has managed to remain very successful, generating billions in advertising revenue. However, it would seem that the company is now clamping down following limited regional tests earlier this year. 

YouTube began cracking down on ad-blocker use earlier this summer, with some users beginning to see a warning, stating that ad-blockers violate the site's terms of service and asking them to disable it before continuing to watch a video. Now, the company has confirmed to The Verge that this new system is rolling out worldwide, pushing users to either view ads, or subscribe to YouTube Premium.

Of course, this comes after a push by YouTube for longer ads, as well as more unskippable ads on certain devices, like Smart TVs. Beyond that, YouTube also raised the price of its Premium subscription service earlier this year too.

Hosting the world's largest video hosting site is obviously not a cheap endeavour, with new users signing up, eating up bandwidth and uploading tons of data per day. However, given the prevalence of ad-blockers across the web, it will be interesting to see if this pushes users towards potential alternatives.

A YouTube Premium subscription does not come cheap, currently sitting at £16.99 per month in the UK. This also includes YouTube Music, but personally, I would like to see a cheaper option with YouTube Music removed. I've been using Spotify since the late 2000s and have very little desire to change, but at the same time, YouTube's ads can be unbearable at times, both due to length, the number of breaks in longer videos and the increased amount of unskippable ads.

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KitGuru Says: Have you begun seeing the ad-blocker warning on YouTube yet? We understand that ad-blockers can be important for avoiding spam but we do hope that you whitelist sites you want to support, like ours. We encourage you all to check out our open letter to the community on this topic. As an independent site, we value being able to bring honest coverage, reviews and buying advice to readers 

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