I would also argue that part of the reason for the escalation of ads is spread of ad blocking. They have fewer users they can monetize, so they have to monetize those users more.

Do you know the percentage of users that use ad blocking on YT?

No idea, but I know it's a self defeating cycle. I started blocking ads because they were getting annoying, I'm sure many other do the same.

> They've also dramatically increased the proportion and intrusiveness of those ads over the last year, taking advantage of a near-monopoly position and a captive audience.

Agreed.

But they didn’t do this until after providing you with the option to pay for ad-free.

If ads bother you that much really, just put up and pay for it. Your problem will be solved across all your machines, devices, phones, tablets and TVs in less than a minute.

Google created this "problem" and they also created a "solution" for it.

A better solution is to move away from YouTube, if at all possible.

The existence of alternatives doesn't mean I need to like either, and they have changed the parameters of the choice in the last year. I don't have to like that, either.

You know that you can pay the same that you pay for Netflix and have no adds right?

What I don't understand is why do I never get ads for Youtube premium? Why isn't there a "signup to Premium to remove ads" on every page.

To find out about Premium I have to go to my channel-> Purchases and memberships->Read More

What monopoly?

I could buy the search monopoly position, but not video.

If anything, YouTube is even more of a monopoly than Google, because while other search engines can index the same internet and show similar results, YouTube competitors don't have the creators behind them to create content for them, and the creators don't want to create content for these platforms since they don't have the users.