# Is Youtube mandatory ads now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 14, 2020, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967 "2020-10-14T22:01:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2020, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/1 "2020-10-14T22:01:22Z")
As of two days ago, Youtube videos will not run unless I disable ad blocking for the site. I notice they now have a prominent ad for their premium pay-for-no-ads version. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2020, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/2 "2020-10-14T22:08:30Z")
I believe the short answer is yes, although there may be some way to circumvent their ads without becoming a premium user. I became a premium user quite some time ago and don’t miss the ads one bit. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2020, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/3 "2020-10-14T23:42:31Z")
I’m still not seeing ads. I have several ad blockers on Chrome, but one seems worth mentioning, ad block for youtube. Not because I know that’s the one but it seems made for that task. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/4 "2020-10-15T12:54:50Z")
I haven’t been seeing ads either, except when I watch on a browser/computer that doesn’t have an adblocker installed. But I did just now get a notice that AdBlock has been updated, and “We fixed several issues that were making it difficult for AdBlock to block ads and operate effectively on YouTube.” ---
**Author:** ![dougrb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dougrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougrb)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/5 "2020-10-15T15:33:16Z")
I also have not been seeing any. But I have been expecting that to come to an end for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/6 "2020-10-15T22:51:20Z")
I get unplayable videos sometimes. It shows me a message “an error has occurred” or some similar warning, with some suggestions ti fix it. None of which work. The only thing that works is pausing Adblock. Amazing! But some videos play fine. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2020, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/7 "2020-10-17T09:51:57Z")
That might depend on the ad choices in the video - there are several different types of ad on YouTube and they probably don’t all use exactly the same technical methods to work. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2020, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/8 "2020-10-17T12:01:25Z")
Between uBlock Origin and a pi-hole, very few ads slip through and none on youtube. I suspect the youtube ones are being blocked by the pi-hole since I don’t get them on my phone either, unless I’m off my home (or work) wifi. Oddly enough, one of the places I still have trouble with is this board. When uBlock is turned on, I can’t watch inline youtube videos. When I turn it off, there’s a big gap at the top of a thread where an ad should be, which the pi-hole catches about 90% of the time and here and there I’ll get a banner ad…which is when I remember to turn ubo back on. ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2020, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/9 "2020-10-17T16:10:08Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Between uBlock Origin and a pi-hole, very few ads slip through and none on youtube. I suspect the youtube ones are being blocked by the pi-hole since I don’t get them on my phone either, unless I’m off my home (or work) wifi. ^^^this. Annoying as hell at work that I have to waste company time watching youtube ads. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2020, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/10 "2020-10-18T04:35:21Z")
Every once in a while I’ll see an ad on youtube, or I have to load a video a second time because “an error occurred”. Then the next day it’s back as it usually is. I loaded ABP into Firefox a long time ago and haven’t touched it, so I assume they’re auto-updating it as needed, but sometimes it takes a little bit to find the workaround to the most recent workaround. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/12 "2020-10-29T17:17:23Z")
uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger works for me. No YouTube ads. I feel bad sometimes and turn them off but the ads are so frequent and unskippable I just turn it all back on. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/13 "2020-10-29T19:41:18Z")
The YouTube app on Roku is pretty awful now, lots more ads. Many are skippable after 5 seconds or so, some are not. From my research a pi-hole isn’t going to help with the Roku ads. ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/14 "2020-10-29T19:45:49Z")
I’m now seeing ads in videos for people I follow who didn’t used to have ads. I refuse to pay money for the premium no ads YouTube, although one day I will get pissed off enough. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/15 "2020-10-29T20:23:51Z")
I have not experienced any change yet. Now I have something to look forward to… ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/16 "2020-10-29T21:10:07Z")
Now after my latest Windows update, Youtube runs with my adblocker again. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/17 "2020-10-29T21:20:40Z")
I have no issues watching all the Youtube content I want with my Adblocker in action. Using Youtube without the adblocker is an unbearable experience to me. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2020, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/18 "2020-10-30T02:33:46Z")
Yeah. I actually timed it out once on a channel I watch. The video was 20 minutes long and there were over seven minutes of ads that ran. No thanks. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2020, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/19 "2020-10-30T02:38:14Z")
WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY YOUTUBE PREMIUM?! No thanks Yes sign me up! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2020, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/20 "2020-10-30T03:08:28Z")
I’ll stop using an ad-blocker when ads stop being obnoxious. Let me know when that happens. I check in occasionally if there’s been any progress on that, but so far they just seem to be getting worse. I do subscribe to a few things, or am a Patreon supporter, to make up for my ad-blocking, though. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2020, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-youtube-mandatory-ads-now/922967/21 "2020-10-30T03:14:52Z")
gods i wish i could get an ad blocker for you tube on the x box and roku …its the same damn ads every break …