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YouTube is getting more muscular with ad-blocking software.
The platform is showing warning messages about breaking its terms of service to people using blockers, the company confirmed to The Verge. The move is part of its “global effort” to encourage people to allow ads or try YouTube Premium, Christopher Lawton, communications manager for YouTube, said in a statement.
The message nudges people to allow ads or pay $14 a month for YouTube Premium. As of last year, YouTube had 80 million Music and Premium subscribers globally.
“Becoming stricter on ad blocking should add incremental inventory to YouTube’s massive ad business,” said Insider Intelligence principal analyst Ross Benes. “Advertisers already could reach most internet users through YouTube, but now their reach could expand slightly and touch the viewers who are most creative in avoiding ads.”
For marketers, people blocking ads has led to billions in revenue loss. In fact, searches for “YouTube ad blocker” have spiked since October, per Android Authority. An analysis in April from Blockthrough, which works to recover blocked revenue for companies, found that 19% of people in the U.S. block ads.
Google’s crackdown on ad blockers on YouTube was previously a “small experiment globally” that ran in June, according to Lawton. Back then, YouTube warned people via pop-up, asking them to disable their ad blocker and avoid being limited to just three videos, according to Bleeping Computer.
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