YouTube’s new strategy to make skipping ads and sponsors almost impossible

YouTube is reportedly experimenting with a new way to embed ads into videos in its newest move to circumvent ad blockers. The video hosting site has been working to mitigate losses from ad blocker users that enjoy Premium benefits without paying.  Last October, YouTube’s war with the ad blocker community peaked when it tested pop-up warnings imploring users to either uninstall their ad blockers or subscribe to YouTube Premium. While the effort had some success with many users following suit, it also inspired many others to try out more sophisticated ad blockers.

On The Offensive

YouTube’s quest for more ad revenue began in earnest in 2022 when they killed off third-party viewer Vance, which offered Premium features for free. Last October’s events marked the beginning of an assault against ad blockers. This year they’ve resumed the battle, discontinuing a handful of third-party apps, Vance remake ReVanced among them. According to ad blocker SponsorBlock, the entertainment app is said to be aiming to add a new wrinkle to its anti-ad blocker crusade, by switching to server-side ad insertion, essentially meaning that instead of being superimposed over a video, ads will now be stitched into the video.

Beyond generally making ads harder to skip, this will disrupt ad blockers that rely on crowdsourced timestamps marking where ads are placed. With ads stitched into the video traditional ad blockers will be rendered futile as they’ll have no additional links to block. Timestamp-based segment skippers like SponsorBlock aren’t traditional ad blockers. Instead, these apps use crowdsourced timestamps to skip lengthy and disruptive sponsor segments on each video. The spliced ads will extend the video’s watch time, making it harder for the software to pinpoint the exact time the ad is placed.

YouTube will still have to figure out the nuances of how to make the logistics work because if the ads are being inserted server-side, they’ll have the power to auto-skip ads for Premium subscribers. This opens up new security exploits for ad blockers to hijack Premium subscriber data to skip ads automatically. This also opens up difficulties for YouTube by potentially breaking timestamped links or video chapters. Others have suggested using a VPN and IP address from countries where YouTube ads are banned, like Russia, Myanmar, Uzbekistan, or Albania.

The Platform’s Dilemma

The Google-run company continues to be mired in its pursuit of higher profits, most of which come from advertising. Finding creative and complex ways to embed advertising is a necessary evil for the business, but has the drawback of negatively affecting user experience. YouTube has also been known for lax standards on what it allows to be advertised on its site, allowing scammers and grifters to advertise phishing schemes and predatory finance courses. The traditional defense on YouTube’s part is that if fewer people used ad blockers, they would have more revenue and thus be less reliant on intrusive advertising. Others also feel that using ad blockers to watch content creators without directly financially supporting them is unethical, essentially consuming content without contributing to its creation.

While people will eventually find workarounds, the question becomes what lengths individuals will go to to get the ad-free experience without subscribing to YouTube Premium. As with all security, nothing is 100%, but with enough roadblocks and deterrents, the inconvenience outweighs the reward. We’re yet to see if YouTube utilises server-side ad injection at scale, there will likely be much to be ironed out before that happens, but its looming over the horizon poses a whole new threat to those battling for free YouTube without intrusive ads.