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Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by gundmc on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @04:49PM (#26007318)
I fear this will only encourage the frankly absurd number of ads that have been on Youtube videos lately.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by sniperjzp on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:31PM (#26007886)
You can see this kind of comment in every YouTube related posts, please, there's no free lunch, either pay for the subscription or use tools to block the ads.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by Arrath on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @08:18PM (#26009453)
I was paying for the subscription but then they cancelled Google Music. Ad-free youtube was just a nice perk of that.

The replacement in YouTube Music premium* does not come with the bonus of no ads on youtube videos, which I think is some straight crap. I had forgot they existed, damn near.

*Unless there is another tier of subscription I haven't noticed.

Time to look into adblocker for my phone.

Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by 762236 on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @08:24PM (#26009501)
Nothing changed for me. I still have no ads on YouTube after my Play Music switched to YouTube Music.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by Arrath on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @08:26PM (#26009509)
Welp, that's weird. Time to do some digging I guess.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by comboy on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @09:36PM (#26009921)
I think they actually have a support you can contact - https://support.google.com/youtube/gethelp?hl=en

Now that's weird.

Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by Arrath on Wednesday February 03, 2021 @10:33AM (#26014514)
No kidding! My biggest fear was that I'd be dealing with the Google Support Blackhole. Thanks so much for the link.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by gundmc on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:39PM (#26007996)
I have no problem with some ads. I have a problem with midroll ads every 5 minutes and ads >> 2 minutes long when I've stepped away from my device and can't skip.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by justapassenger on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:56PM (#26008188)
YouTube premium is available in tons of countries and they have family plans. I’ve been using it for years with my wife and it’s best money ever spent.

Just pay for the content. You aren’t forced to watch those ads.

Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by Simon_says on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @06:44PM (#26008696)
If you give Alphabet money directly, you’re just encouraging them.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by justapassenger on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @10:01PM (#26010083)
To do what? Treat me more as a paying customer, and less as a product they resell to advertisers?

I’ll happily encourage them to do that.

Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by Clewza313 on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @06:55PM (#26008790)
What does that even mean? If you watch YouTube, you're just encouraging them.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by actuator on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:48PM (#26008096)
Why not just pay for the service?
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by pb7 on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @06:02PM (#26008268)
Because despite the common request to "let me pay a monthly fee to not see ads", the vast majority of people are too cheap to pay up. This is why ads are as prolific as they are.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by jonas21 on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @07:12PM (#26008941)
Okay, but how is that relevant in this case, where you can pay to remove the ads, regardless of whether other people do?
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by pb7 on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @09:30PM (#26009877)
Because people are too cheap to pay. I thought that was clear in my comment.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by Jtsummers on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @06:14PM (#26008386)
For me it's a bit of a Catch-22. I don't watch much YouTube content anyways, but I've reduced my consumption over the years because of the ads. From what I can tell, there's nothing I want to watch anymore because I no longer know what's there (and of value to me). So the prospect of paying is absurd for me as I'd be buying something with no real value except to remove an annoyance on the few occasions each month I bother to watch something on YouTube. If I had a clearer reason to increase my YouTube consumption, I'd entertain paying.

Other video services have clearer value to me in the content they provide so I pay for them. I suspect I'm not alone in this.

Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by actuator on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @06:27PM (#26008546)
Yeah, If you are just watching videos rarely it can be tough to justify it.

I still have some channels that I regularly consume plus travel and cooking/baking videos that I watch a lot so it made sense for me to pay for it.

Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by bawolff on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @06:52PM (#26008762)
There is no free lunch for youtube either. Customers being less satisfied and whining about it on the internet is the cost of increasing the number of advertisements. If it wasn't, google would just put infinite adverts.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by systemvoltage on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @07:36PM (#26009138)
There is a market for infinite adverts. You remember ShopTV and other TV marketing channels streaming advertisements 24/7?
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by seaman1921 on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:35PM (#26007951)
what makes you think you are entitled to using youtube for free? The ad-free experience in Premium is great.

And don't forget they are paying a huge sum to the content creators as well - it is a delicate balance.

Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by FartyMcFarter on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:38PM (#26007984)
I find it annoying that lots of content creators still put sponsored ads in their videos which are shown to me as a premium user. IMO those should be skipped automatically when Premium, but alas...
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by actuator on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @06:03PM (#26008278)
I don't think YT should interfere. As I see it, YT is a pipe for content. If you pay for it through ads/subscription you are paying for the pipe not just the content. The content creator should be free to monetize their videos as they choose to like TV channels can show ads for a TV show.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by FartyMcFarter on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @06:29PM (#26008559)
But I'm not just paying for the pipe. Part of my money already goes to content creators.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by SomewhatLikely on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @07:08PM (#26008892)
If things were set up correctly you'd expect the content creator to want to use YT's ads. They can be personalized to the user, can change over time, etc. The fact so many embed their own ads shows some failure in the system IMHO.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by throwaway3699 on Wednesday February 03, 2021 @04:12AM (#26011924)
Demonetization has nearly killed any channel with a whiff of controversy or edgyness... The types of videos everyone wants to watch anyway.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by ZephyrBlu on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:58PM (#26008205)
I'm not why you expect YouTube to skip sponsorships which are directly integrated into the video...

Also, content creators do it because brand deals are generally a big chunk of change.

Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by FartyMcFarter on Wednesday February 03, 2021 @09:39AM (#26013939)
> I'm not why you expect YouTube to skip sponsorships which are directly integrated into the video...

As a user, I don't care how or why the ads appear - they're ads regardless.

Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by 2OEH8eoCRo0 on Wednesday February 03, 2021 @05:40AM (#26012441)
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by polote on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:21PM (#26007756)
Youtube is almost unusable without uBlock Origin or you have to call it Adstube.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by silexia on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:30PM (#26007882)
Pay the $10 a month or whatever for Youtube premium and never see an ad again.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by vkou on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:34PM (#26007929)
It's a decent deal if you also want the YT Music (Formerly Google Play Music) library, not a great deal otherwise.

(I do want the music library, so I've been a subscriber for a very long time.)

Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by mav3rick on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:09PM (#26007576)
You can also get an ad free experience for about 3 dollars a month.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by mattlondon on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:16PM (#26007678)
In the UK it is £12 a month for YouTube premium which is more like 15USD. Feels quite expensive when Netflix is about half of that.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by deadmutex on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:33PM (#26007922)
How much is Spotify? YT Premium ~= YT Music + Ad free videos + YT Originals.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by ra7 on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:18PM (#26007716)
Isn't YouTube Premium $11.99 per month?
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by partingshots on Wednesday February 03, 2021 @08:43AM (#26013485)
It’s a fixed number. So EU/UK people pay more. Same thing with games 60 dollars vs. 60 euros
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by mav3rick on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @07:53PM (#26009274)
A family plan is 15 for 6 people.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by jansan on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:06PM (#26007546)
IMO they show you those annoying ads (two in a row recently) to make you subscribe to the ad-free premium service.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by belval on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @06:20PM (#26008465)
Check out YouTube Vanced, it's a YouTube app with all the advanced functionalities and no ads.

EDIT: https://vancedapp.com/

Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by Crash0v3rid3 on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @08:53PM (#26009679)
Can we please stop suggesting apps and extensions to circumvent these ads?

They offer a paid service, exactly what people on HN wanted. You are stealing from creators here.

Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by belval on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @10:19PM (#26010209)
Most creators make peanuts from these ads that Google insert everywhere. The real value is in sponsorships that I actually watch because it's part of the content.

I don't feel the need to pay 10$/month to watch LinusTechTips which is itself 20 minutes long advertisements for PC parts, sponsored by their respective manufacturers.

Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by jay_kyburz on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @09:30PM (#26009880)
This whole thread is about google making $40B. They don't need your money. Keep it and give it to somebody who does.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by solipsism on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @09:39PM (#26009940)
I think you read the comment you're replying to incorrectly.

You are stealing from creators here

Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by gundmc on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @06:30PM (#26008569)
I don't want to avoid ads entirely - I still want to support creators and the success of the platform. It just seems as if the length, number, and frequency of ads has been ratcheted up to 200% lately.
Re:2020 Q4 Alphabet Earnings Release [pdf] by belval on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @06:52PM (#26008765)
Props to you for sticking to your principles. For what it is worth, I only started using it after the increase in ads.