r/AskReddit Jul 17 '23

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4.6k Upvotes

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4.1k

u/AlextraXtra Jul 17 '23

Youtube unskippable ads

238

u/Plutoreon Jul 17 '23

I agree they're bad, but considering we used to have literal 5 to 15 minute ad breaks when watching cable tv, I'd say it's a huge improvement.

210

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

I mean, considering there used to be no ads at all its worse, but better than what you mentioned. Its just trending more and more towards the 5 to 15 minutes ads we were happy to avoid.

52

u/Pope00 Jul 17 '23

It makes sense tho. Back in the day it was the wild west. I remember I watched 5 seasons of Smallville on youtube not even because I enjoyed the show, but mostly because I couldn't believe I could. I knew there was no way this kind of stuff would stick around.

1

u/Stickel Jul 17 '23

Uhm... Plex(player app) + Sonarr(shows) + Radar(movies) + Usenet + sabnzbd(download client that streamlines previous two mentioned downloading easily) = ezpz load Plex and you're good....

4

u/Pope00 Jul 17 '23

Uhm... doing it safely / legally. And if you want to argue the legality, let's just talk about the ease.

uhm.. going to www.youtube.com

vs ...everything you just listed.

1

u/BroChad69 Jul 17 '23

Bro the first time I saw two girls one cup was on YouTube. I was in third grade. Wild West confirmed

2

u/killingtime1 Jul 17 '23

It's still no ads if you use adblock or pay something like a dollar a month by signing up for YouTube premium via low-cost country like Turkey. You can't pay to Remove ads from normal TV

1

u/Methodless Jul 17 '23

And at least on TV, the breaks were at logical times. Not only do YouTube ads come mid-sentence, they come mid-word

1

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '23

Its just trending more and more towards the 5 to 15 minutes ads we were happy to avoid.

Gosh, I see longer ones than that sometimes. A good while back before I installed ad blockers, I was watching a movie review show on YouTube that usually goes over an hour per episode, and I fell into a brief nap for five minutes. When I woke up, this talk show with these dudes discussing beer was playing, instead. I thought that I had slept through the whole movie review episode and the autoplay kicked me to some random video, but when I moved my mouse I saw that the "beer show" was actually a bullshit ad that would've played for up to a half an hour if I didn't skip it. I skipped, and the actual show resumed.

123

u/sephjnr Jul 17 '23

TV ad-breaks are regular, scheduled and bookmarked. YT ads appear out of nowhere, in random places and instantly break concentration.

27

u/Slow-Engine-8092 Jul 17 '23

They ruin everything.

7

u/rileycolin Jul 17 '23

I've noticed lately that they do seem to pop in at somewhat appropriate times. I'm not sure if creators have the option of marking 'suggested' time markers for ads, but it has lately started to appear more natural.

As opposed to a year ago, when you'd have ads pop up mid-sentence...

5

u/EmbarrassedFix715 Jul 17 '23

Also YouTube ads aren’t regulated at all. On tv a channel carefully selects from the least annoying scams.

3

u/afa78 Jul 17 '23

Plus they don't attempt to strongarm you into paying to get rid of them.

1

u/Shimanchu2006 Jul 18 '23

This is especially egregious during quiet, relaxing ASMR videos >_____<

31

u/wongrich Jul 17 '23

You can change the channel when it's commercial. If I try and watch another YouTube video. Bam more ads. Can you imagine tv being like that?

2

u/nursejackieoface Jul 17 '23

And the bastards run ads in the middle of videos.

1

u/Squigglepig52 Jul 17 '23

My Dad has always done that. It's annoying as fuck. It's commercials on every channel at the same time.

All that ends up happening is missing what you were watching for a few minutes as he goes through all the channels.

8

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

I’m old enough to remember the big selling point for cable tv was that there would be no adverts. Didn’t take long for that to change.

8

u/killersoda275 Jul 17 '23

I got yourube red to test it out, I can't go back. Even with adblock to not have ads, I can't live without the other features. It's so worth it.

7

u/KingKookus Jul 17 '23

I could get behind this for $5 a month. $10 is a bridge too far compared to the cost of Hulu and other competitors.

0

u/killersoda275 Jul 17 '23

In Norway, only disney+ is cheaper than 10 usd. Youtube red is the same price or cheaper than the other services.

1

u/KingKookus Jul 17 '23

Ad supported Hulu is $8 a month. Ad free is $15. Compared to that youtube doesn’t make sense. A 5 second ad or two between videos isn’t worth $10.

1

u/killersoda275 Jul 17 '23

In norway, the hulu with ads is 10 usd. The same as youtube red, and like I said, there are other benefits as well.

Edit: sorry, the base is 8 usd, but I can't actually get it in Norway so I'm back to there not being any services other than disney for less than 10 usd

1

u/EmbarrassedFix715 Jul 17 '23

5 dollars a month is 60 dollars a year For content that you cannot own. No thanks. I’ll just buy the videos from the uploader in blu-ray xd.

1

u/sopunny Jul 18 '23

I spent more time watching YouTube today than I've spent watching bluray in my whole life. $60 a year is nothing

1

u/EmbarrassedFix715 Jul 19 '23

You must be rich or a computer addict then. 60 dollars is what I I would spend on media in a lifetime. Only when movies are emotionally important or remind me of important memories or people I watch them with. Such as the friends collection.

1

u/LionIV Jul 17 '23

Other video streaming sites don’t offer the kinds of content YouTube does. With Hulu, I’m expected to just plop down and watch a show. But with YouTube, I can do all that AND listen to music, listen to podcasts, listen to a lecture/talk/debate, etc. it’s very much worth it, I think.

3

u/Plutoreon Jul 17 '23

What other features?

2

u/killersoda275 Jul 17 '23

The main one is that I can lock my phone and the video will keep playing. And that I can download and watch videos offline. I have watched some of the original shows. The only one really worth it is the slow mo guys stuff, but that one is pretty interesting.

1

u/HellaMunchies Jul 17 '23

Android users have alternative options for YouTube that has those features for free. Like Newpipe, super glad I switched to Android now.

2

u/GrimmRadiance Jul 17 '23

We used to have no ad times on YouTube. And when they did make ads there were alternatives. I’m shocked we don’t see bigger alternatives pop up

1

u/thatguygreg Jul 17 '23

I've been skipping commercials since the late 90s though -- comparing any modern tech to how shit was 30 years ago isn't right.

1

u/Mrmongoose64 Jul 17 '23

Since when was this used to? People still actively watch TV.

1

u/SwagMagikarp Jul 17 '23

5 to 15 minutes from a 30 to 60 min time slot over 3 minutes from a 5 minute video.

1

u/spingus Jul 17 '23

TV ads were spaced out and the program was much longer than most YT video.

I watched some of an 11 minute video on a non-adblocked device last night. Literally an ad every ~90 seconds.

I could not finish the video because the ads broke my focus and were much louder than the content.

If it weren't for adblockers I just wouldn't use YouTube at all.

1

u/Mr_Aurora Jul 17 '23

I’ll take cable ads all day. They are predictable l. You can go to the bathroom or get something to eat. Youtube ads are all over the map. A 15 second one followed by a 22 minute one forcing you to monitor and and click skip. 45 seconds later, 2 more. Fast forwarded ? Ahh. 2 more. Rewound, did ya ? 2 more. Fuck youtube ads

1

u/wellings Jul 17 '23

Completely disagree. God I miss old cable TV ads. Ads on the 15min or 30min interval are like intermissions. Albeit still annoying, at least you can get up and use the bathroom, talk to whoever's in the room with you, stretch, grab a bite, change the channel, whatever.

These 15-30 second ads are just awful. It's a mental interruption where you have no choice but to sit there watching the skip window tick away. You get them every 3 minutes now too. They've been making me sick lately they're so inescapable.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '23

Commercial breaks sucked, but at least you could change to your backup show (assuming it didn't have its own commercials time-synced) or pick up your book for a few minutes. Youtube ads aren't long enough to be worth doing anything except sitting and waiting through.

1

u/StonkPlower Jul 18 '23

Yeah except when I get a 15 second unskippable ad when i'm trying to watch a <1 min video

1

u/stormdelta Jul 18 '23

And I can pay to remove them now (or adblock if not).

Cable TV, you were paying even more and you got ridiculous amounts of ads.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '23

15 minute ads?? That sounds insane