Free YouTube Users: Ad Blockers Could Impact Video Quality!
YouTube is working hard to remove ad blockers from the platform, which it claims will help the company pay creators. What started as a limited-scale test has now expanded into a global mission, as the platform warns users that enabling ad-blocking features on YouTube will result in them not being able to watch videos.
That’s right, the platform has been showing pop-ups like the one below, telling them to remove the ad blocker from their browser immediately.
However, that’s not the only trade-off people have to make when using ad blockers. YouTube says that users who have installed ad blockers to watch YouTube videos still have a worse viewing experience, which basically means that the video quality is worse than without ad blockers. The reduced quality is not limited to other browsers such as Firefox and Edge, but also to Chrome users.
So what’s the best way to avoid these limiting features? YouTube has only one answer for these users, asking them to pay for YouTube Premium, which offers other benefits such as ad-free videos, background playback, and access to the YouTube Music app, which has over a million pieces of content. It’s worrying that YouTube is blowing up its ad-blocker-free ecosystem and trying everything it can to force people to pay for the content they watch.
The company faces serious questions from antitrust regulators, especially in Europe, where it may have to adjust its ad-blocking strategy to avoid being hit hard for violating user privacy rules. YouTube Premium costs over Rs 100 per month in countries like India, while those living in the US pay a higher monthly fee to use the service.
