YouTube Wants to Prevent Viewers From Using Ad Blockers

YouTube Wants to Prevent Viewers From Using Ad Blockers

YouTube Wants to Prevent Viewers , From Using Ad Blockers.

YouTube viewers who have ad blockers enabled have taken to social media to post screenshots of a pop-up warning issued by the platform, Engadget reports.

The warning advises viewers that if they don't disable their ad blocker, their player will lose access to content after three videos.

The warning then states that "ads allow YouTube to stay free for billions of users worldwide.".

It also encourages the viewer to sign up for YouTube Premium if they don't want to see ads so that "creators can still get paid.".

According to a company spokesperson, YouTube is "running a small experiment globally that urges viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium.".

Playback will be temporarily disabled "[i]n extreme cases, where viewers continue their use of ad blockers" and "ignore repeated requests to allow ads on YouTube.".

It's not clear how many viewers or regions are currently part of this experiment, Engadget reports.

YouTube has had declining ad revenue for the past three quarters.

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If the current test proves effective, it's likely to expand to more users to compensate for those losses, Engadget reports.