OV9

What fresh hell is this? App now displays a little ad after the in-video ones that you have to manually dismiss. Are they that desperate to drive users away?

I mean, they literally delay the playback of videos if you use an adblocker on a desktop browser.

So, er, yes.

Or you can sign up to YouTube Premium for only £7.99 per month

Advertising generally does ruin everything. Even though I get some of that ad revenue, it's very clear that it doesn't create a nice user experience.

How do you get it for £7.99? It's £12.99 for individual membership. I don't mind paying that because I don't pay for Sky, Netflix etc and get good value from it.

There may be ways round the adverts (I used to watch in Safari on my phone with an ad-blocker rather than the app, which was effective 5 years ago) but now I mainly use a smart TV to watch and I'd have no idea how to get round ads on that.

The £7.99 is just the premium-lite which gets rid of most ads, it's not the full version with music and downloads etc.

It’s unwatchable on a tv when I was using it for Goodwood a few weeks ago. You will get a reel of 5 ads in a row every 10 minutes.
Youtube premium costs the same as Netflix which when you consider one is for a full blown film producer then that’s a bit rich just to not play some ads.

Way it's going - Prime now want more money to go Add Free but they can do one. I already pay enough.

And to be honest, at 51 years old, I appreciate the opportunity for toilet break in a 2 hour film...

Gavster wrote: Wed Jul 30, 2025 9:32 am The £7.99 is just the premium-lite which gets rid of most ads, it's not the full version with music and downloads etc.

Ah, thanks - that's a good sign for me because they'll no doubt gradually introduce some form of ads on the paid service but they'll probably start with the cheaper tiers.

I do use the music and downloads functions; I don't have Apple Music and you can integrate Youtube Music with Apple Home for Homepods etc, and use it in the car over Carplay. And it doesn't have missing tracks like Spotify does because it'll just use the audio from uploads if it's particularly obscure.

I've had YouTube premium for a while now and I've found it really worthwhile. When they really cracked down on ad-blockers, I just tried the free trial and got hooked in. I'm assuming it's a premium feature, but it will let you jump ahead of an in video sponsors which is quite handy.

I also sacked off Netflix etc, so doesn't feel too bad paying the £12.99 a month, as it's where I consume most things these days.

Mito Man wrote: Wed Jul 30, 2025 9:47 am It’s unwatchable on a tv when I was using it for Goodwood a few weeks ago. You will get a reel of 5 ads in a row every 10 minutes.

Absolutely that. Using AirPlay to send it to the TV from my phone is an absolutely hateful experience.

Jobbo wrote: Wed Jul 30, 2025 10:58 am

Gavster wrote: Wed Jul 30, 2025 9:32 am The £7.99 is just the premium-lite which gets rid of most ads, it's not the full version with music and downloads etc.

Ah, thanks - that's a good sign for me because they'll no doubt gradually introduce some form of ads on the paid service but they'll probably start with the cheaper tiers.

Pretty sure they already have for Shorts.

Which is why I'm not paying Youtube to sell my data, and also serve me ads.

Do you use gmail? Or search using google at all? I think there's a hell of a lot less data I care about in my watch history than there is in other google services.

Anyway, if you use Shorts then maybe stick to the Tiktok alternative. After all, it's ultimately controlled by the Chinese government so it's bound to be safe and secure.

Nah, i avoid shorts like the plague, it's the inevitable enshittification of everything that gets me.

I'm getting ever more belligerent in my old age, if YouTube make it any worse I'll just stop bothering with it. The greed from every angle is just doing my swede in.

Just this week had the regular argument over my fibre charges, new customers pay half what I was offered, had to waste an hour threatening to leave etc etc.

Just fed up with all of it.