Noticed how you are forced to watch them now. You have to click a video and then it minimize but stays there, then you have to click the X to get rid off it. On my TV its worse, same adds over and over again. If you skip them they are back again.

Drives me nuts

I think you mean “Ads”. 🙂.   But agree, not just YouTube, Prime, Netflix, etc.  you pay for the service, then you have to pay again for an “upgrade” to not see Ads … and sometimes Prime (an already pay for service) will show you 3 seasons of a show and then charge you to see the 4th season!?

The greed has really got out of hand and NO ONE is doing anything about it … the disgusting side of unregulated capitalism.

This practice is why I created a PLEX server and install PLEX client on all my TVs and other devices.  I’ve converted my huge collection of DVD/BD/CDs so I have everything on my local PLEX server.  Since BD/DVD are getting harder to find but I’ve managed to secure “Bulk” BD/DVD crates to convert.

The average person spends 4.2 years watching Ads … I’m not going to be a part of that statistic.

On my Tablet the ads are either 6 or 15 seconds long, part of every Vid I click on. I don't know if this is the choice of the original Poster or not; they're even doing it with content creators who aren't posting new content anymore...

15 minutes ago, CO2Neutral said:

I think you mean “Ads”.

 

No it's ADD... because they keep adding more and more and more. 🙂

I’ve made many NON-Monetized videos on YouTube and when I view them from another source and not logged in, my videos are full of Ads.  It’s so bad, that I’ve moved to Vimeo (ZERO Ads), but Vimeo does cost me $900/yr.

The benefits from Vimeo are:

1.  Image quality is much better.  They don’t compress my content and reduce it’s image quality like YouTube.

2.  No Ads, ever, everyone likes that

3.  Much better tags and marker tools

The con’s to Vimeo:

1.  It cost me $$$

2.  Not a popular platform from the casual surfer

Edited June 4, 2025Jun 4 by CO2Neutral

May I suggest a Wiki page:

https://wiki.futo.org/index.php/Introduction_to_a_Self_Managed_Life:_a_13_hour_%26_28_minute_presentation_by_FUTO_software#Setting_Up_pfBlockerNG_for_Ad-Blocking_in_pfSense

It's not for the faint-hearted but an apparently surefire solution to the ads problem. Louis Rossman also has a video presentation of this on his YT website (ironically enough).

Disclaimer: I have not tackled this yet so cannot venture a personal opinion.

Even paid for stream film channels now make pay Ads free streaming.

54 minutes ago, speedyTC said:

It's not for the faint-hearted but an apparently surefire solution to the ads problem

Unfortunately it’s not … and requires frequent IP maintenance and many sites will still just show nothing if the Ads aren’t rendered.  Also, can get in the way of legit processing so you don’t see critical things you need to see that aren’t Ads.  And finally as new technology is used for web and ad development, trying to defeat them takes more time than letting them play their course.

I watch YT using the Brave Browser which for now eliminates ads.

The streaming services didn't use to do this, but I guess their executives and shareholders aren't getting rich fast enough, so they decided to screw over the users and make them watch stupid advertisements unless they fork over more cash.

I'm not surprised, as to be honest American companies, like most American people, are extremely greedy.  You see it in the cost of our healthcare, for example.  You see it in an article about a young couple who claim they are "struggling" with inflation when they are raking in $150K/year.  You see it with an online business run by some 30-something where she sells a product that she has produced in a SE Asian sweatshop, sells it at a 500% markup, and then whines about the tariffs hurting her business. 

It's greed, plain and simple.

I still support capitalism and the free market, however, as the alternative is far worse, as history has shown us time and time again.

I just mute the advertisements or get up and do a little something until they're over.

Dave

I use a program called FreeTube to watch Youtube videos without any interruption by adverts.
Occasionally Youtube make back end changes, so, for a few days FreeTube doesnt work, but it only takes the authors a few days to tweak their code, and its up and running again.

Sadly its only available on PCs, so smart TVs, streaming devices, tables, phones etc cant use this program.

28 minutes ago, c912039 said:

Sadly its only available on PCs, so smart TVs, streaming devices, tables, phones etc cant use this program.

I have no issues watching YT on the computer with said blockers.
However, I've become quite addicted to watching YT on a big tv which, as you point out, cannot use the ad blocking apps a computer can. Hence my above post on blocking ads at the router level.

 I just pay the subscription, but I do make money off of AdSense every month so I just pay the subscription from what they pay me

We do most of our tv watching on a DVR from our satellite provider. We rarely watch a movie, news or tv show that’s not prerecorded so we can fast forward through commercials. We also enjoy Turner Classics which is completely commercial free.

14 hours ago, CO2Neutral said:

I think you mean “Ads”. 🙂.   But agree, not just YouTube, Prime, Netflix, etc.  you pay for the service, then you have to pay again for an “upgrade” to not see Ads … and sometimes Prime (an already pay for service) will show you 3 seasons of a show and then charge you to see the 4th season!?

The greed has really got out of hand and NO ONE is doing anything about it … the disgusting side of unregulated capitalism.

This practice is why I created a PLEX server and install PLEX client on all my TVs and other devices.  I’ve converted my huge collection of DVD/BD/CDs so I have everything on my local PLEX server.  Since BD/DVD are getting harder to find but I’ve managed to secure “Bulk” BD/DVD crates to convert.

The average person spends 4.2 years watching Ads … I’m not going to be a part of that statistic.

I installed the Plex Media Server too.  It's the next best thing to sliced bread.  The Plex server is great for converted DVDs which you can now purchase nowadays in bulk at giveaway prices. You can then watch them in Plex from any device anywhere.

I also have a paid YouTube Premium subscription which absolutely has no ads and has higher video resolutions too. It's great that you can view it offline, but you can't download videos to mp4 files.