YouTube prevents ad-blocking mobile apps from accessing its videos
The online video-sharing platform YouTube is cracking down on ad-blocking apps and suggests people should purchase a premium subscription if they want a truly ad-free experience.
Ad-block extensions have become popular over the last few years as they remove any intrusive advertisements and videos across multiple platforms.
To address this, Rob from Team YouTube posted an update titled ‘Enforcement on Third Party Apps’ on the YouTube Help community page on Monday (April 15).
He says: “We’re strengthening our enforcement on third-party apps that violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, specifically ad-blocking apps.”
The update suggests that ad-blockers could result in a poorer viewing experience.
“Viewers who are using these third-party apps may experience buffering issues or see the error ‘The following content is not available on this app’ when trying to watch a video.
“We want to emphasize that our terms don’t allow third-party apps to turn off ads because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership, and Ads on YouTube help support creators and let billions of people around the world use the streaming service.”
Advertising is the most common way for people in the YouTube Partner Programme to earn money as revenue is generated when people watch the advertisement on videos. This earning is then split between the creator and the platform.
YouTube Premium could soon be the only way to prevent ads
“We also understand that some people prefer an entirely ad-free experience, which is why we offer YouTube Premium,” says the team member.
The membership subscription allows people to watch without ads, as well as the ability to download videos and play them in the background while using other apps or with the phone’s home screen locked. There’s a cost of $13.99 a month for the privilege.
The American platform only allows the use of third-party apps to use the API when the API Services Terms of Service. The team takes action when an app is found to violate these terms.
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