YouTube seems like its becoming a cesspool of ads and I’m not paying Google money to be somewhat ad free. So, what with YouTube being the place the hucksters have taken over with ads that are sometimes longer than the video I want to watch, this is how I react.
If it’s the channel of someone I like, I let the ads play, but mute the volume and spend time doing something else. later returning my attention to the screen, if the ads are over, and there are always ads not just a single ad, I click back to the beginning of the video I want to watch, unmute the sound and watch the video. If YouTube interjects more ads I just repeat the mute etc. routine. When done I find a playlist for that channel, click to watch and go off letting the ads and videos run on and on. I figure if the advertiser is willing to be a party to my privacy and time, they can pay to have ads run that I am not even in the room to watch. Any amount the channel earns from YouTube is just a bonus.
If it is a new channel I immediately click to skip the ad , I’m not watching an ad for some channel I know nothing about. Most all of the videos I watch are what I call educational, where I am trying to do something and seek out a video from someone who has already done it. This is especially true for the photo and video editing apps, various repairs, gardening info and space news videos and live streams I like to watch. I’d say something about the stupid video suggestions YouTube provides, but that is a post for another day.
Pretty much the same as me. I have no major problem with the ads, irritating though they may be – because let’s face it most of the creators need the ads to pay for doing their work. Most of the channels I follow are travel related, and all the flights and trains and coach journeys, hotels and stuff, can’t come cheap. Let ’em run, then enjoy the content.
The only thing that is annoying is that the intrusions are much more strict and prevalent for videos that are on channels I don’t subscribe to (or want to). Until recently I could click to Allow Ads, refresh the page and watch without a problem, but now YT seems to have stopped that. I can’t watch anything from a non-followed channel – which is a bit daft, because how are you going to know if you like the content or not, if you’re prevented from viewing it?