Some users are allegedly getting an ultimatum from YouTube concerning their Adblockers—turn it off or subscribe to its Premium subscription, lest no streaming.
The measure was reportedly a restricted global test rolled out by YouTube which aims to guarantee the maximum revenue for advertisers’ return on investments.
YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, announced in April a decline in its ad revenue for three quarters in a row, citing a wider precariousness in the economy and an unstable digital ad market as the cause.
Before getting into mainstream consciousness, the word about YouTube’s ad-blocking test came from multiple Redditors who claim a pop-up that warned “Ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube” when trying to watch video content on the platform.
- Pinoy Movie Sites: Watch Filipino-made films and TV shows online
- 6 Vanced alternatives: Watch YouTube videos without ads
While affected users can go the no-cost route by choosing to disable their Adblockers despite regular encounters with ads, they may otherwise opt to subscribe to YouTube’s Premium subscription for Php159 per month.
Apart from giving its subscribers seamless access to video content through an ad-free experience, Premium subscribers also get the benefit of having exclusive access to YouTube Music, getting offline downloads, and running videos in the background on top of other applications.
Confirming the presence of the alleged popup is a YouTube representative who told Bleeping Computer that the event was part of a “small experiment.”