Mildly Infuriating

Geez, so many entitled people in this thread. If Google didn't get their yearly revenue growth, their poor execs wouldn't be able to afford their 3rd yacht! Stop being selfish and subscribe to premium already! /s

An hour of YouTube ads is simply apocalyptic

OP, I know exactly what you're talking about.

I was visiting relatives this Christmas and wanted to watch some of my YouTube videos on their SmartTV. I have watched YouThe with ads on occasion throughout the years...usually when watching some video on a relative's device or school or work computer or something. They are annoying, but mostly fairly manageable. So I started up a 20 minute vid from a youtuber I like.

I shit you not...within the first 5 fucking minutes of the video, there were 5 separate ad breaks. And each ad was going to play for minutes on end if I never hit the skip button.

Yep, you read that right. One ad per minute. I am NOT exaggerating. I counted them and watched the video timestamps.

I almost could not believe what I was seeing. My mind was fucking blown. Never have I ever experienced that egregious level of ads. It made the content I was trying to view literally unwatchable and I switched off the video.

To OP, I'd highly recommend getting an Android tv device like a modern Chromecast (not the old models...needs to run android). They are relatively inexpensive and make viewing content on TVs a sane experience. I think I maybe got mine for $40 or something. Install SmartTube Next and you'll have no ads. Works fantastic. You set it up once and never worry about it again.

Zero ads is the norm for me.
Also, zero YouTube.

This should go in "VeryInfuriating". I agree YouTube has become unwatchable without any kind of ad-block or cheap Premium

iOS: Video Lite Android: Vanced Android TV: Smart Tube

Stop watching YouTube ads. Use a third party player.

I read your edit and thought "how bad could it be?"

I started reading the comments and it was way worse than I thought.

The most upvoted comments all display a great deal of "I only read 2 words of your original post" energy.

I didn't bother with an adblocker until recently myself because I was okay with a couple of ads or mentioning sponsors.

Then, one day, the ads just multiplied on every video. It was that sudden for me. After a couple of days, I downloaded apps for my phone and TV and it's been wonderful.

I'll watch YT in all its horribleness on my consoles if I'm looking for something game-related and I don't want to get up and grab my phone.,

Newpipe

Firefox mobile has ad block and sponsor block now

Revanced for now until that gets shut down

I have a theory that they want you to get so annoyed that you suck it up and pay for premium.

Instead, I decreased my YouTube consumption, turned on my adblocker for low-quality content, or content from an unmonetized creator, or content showing something technically illegal (game OSTs or a motorcycle review involving going 2x the speed limit), and donated to some patreons and purchased a year of Nebula.

ReVanced 👍. Or any other app that gets rid of them.

I think YouTube is dying.

Already, I see many of my favourite channels being restricted (one Ukrainian blogger) whilst the completely moronic, yet dangerous conspiracy theory/Flat-Earthers flourish.

Meanwhile, the most common thing we see is the push to sign up and pay them - yet with all the censorship (not simply censored for non-paying customers to allow the advertisements) it is not a viable option.

Thankfully I still use a Desktop - with Firefox and decent extras the actual ads are still not affecting me at all, but YouTube's policies really are.

They are completely above the law - they don't need to respect their own TOS (the reasons many people are blocked is more related to some secret narrative, and it goes against their own stated terms).

There is no way to appeal outside YouTube, and good luck with any idea of taking them to court for removing your income stream, or censoring a very useful source of information whilst spamming you with algorithms that treat you like Spongebob, and expect you to watch completely moronic content.

I suggest YouTube is a conspiracy to destroy the world, starting with the world population's ability to think.

Convince me I'm wrong ;)

Quick PSA: they don’t currently block VPNs, so you can sign up for an account in a cheap country (I picked Nigeria) and use a foreign currency debit card (I use Revolut) to get Premium for like £1.50 a month for my entire family.

If they close that loophole then I think I’ll be done with it, the ads make it basically unusable these days.

Dunno, I haven’t watch a single add in the past 5 years or so.

Won't someone think of the trickle down economics?? How will creators get paid!!

Don't know, i don't see any.

Same for me on Chromecast, it's pretty much unwatchable overnight, started probably about a week ago. I'm to lazy to set up adblocking for my full network, and I was fine watching the skippable 15s ads, and the occasional longer ones, but currently I mostly get at least a full minute of ads on my TV.

iOS

Using Altstore + Sideloaded by uYouEnhanced = no ads on Youtube ads.

Safari + AdGuard extension works too

Android

Use Revanced or NewPipe.

Revanced Extended.

5+ ads each being 3-5 min long.

I was in India and the ads were straight up music videos.....

I'm watching YouTube on my LG TV quite often. It's not unbearable yet. There's never more than 2 ads. Never more than 30 seconds in total, otherwise it's always skippable. Skippable ads now and then.

It's not great, but not terrible. I'm based in the EU for context.

I'm in Morocco, I keep getting actual music videos as my ads now. And they're all from the lamest artists that always appear on the radio anyway.

You guys get ads?

Ad blocking for 20+ years (on PC and mobile). Ads are cancer. Ditched TV crap with 15-30 minute ads decades ago. Life is good.