Your days spent watching YouTube with an advert blocker enabled might quickly be over. In what the corporate is looking a “small experiment,” choose customers are presently being instructed to show off their advert blocker or subscribe to Premium. The punishment if you happen to don’t? Access to video playback will get shut off.

If you’re topic to this limitation, you’ll see a pop-up message that claims, “It looks like you may be using an ad blocker. Video playback will be blocked unless YouTube is allowlisted or the ad blocker is disabled.” It additionally states that advertisements “allow YouTube to stay free for billions of users worldwide,” and that to remain advert free, a subscription to YouTube Premium is important. Three video thumbnail slots seem within the notification as properly, which presumably fill in as you slowly chew via your restrict.

u/Reddit_n_Me / Reddit

The first sightings of this check surfaced on June 28 (as noticed by Bleeping Computer), when Reddit customers started sharing their encounters with the brand new warning. It follows not lengthy after an identical experiment in May (additionally reported on Reddit), which blocked entry to all movies instantly. But this time round, customers get a grace interval of a number of movies earlier than playback will get shut off. 

In an announcement to Bleeping Computer, YouTube defined it’s “running a small experiment globally that urges users with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium.” The firm additionally says that it’ll disable playback for customers who persist in utilizing an advert blocker, regardless of the warnings. Exactly the place and the way extensively YouTube is operating this check isn’t presently recognized. 

One doable cause for the sudden intolerance of advert blockers: YouTube’s drop in advert income between the primary quarter of 2022 and 2023, as reported by TechCrunch in April. Meanwhile, YouTube’s rising subscriber base, which presently stands at 80 million subscribers, for its Premium and Music providers is rising. It gained over 30 million subscribers between 2021 and 2022.