So, although YouTube’s ad blocker blocking test is a limited experiment right now, we wouldn’t be surprised if the test expands around the world if it works. Modern browsers such as Chrome, FireFox and Safari can block videos from playing. The latest figures suggest YouTube Premium, which doesn’t contain ads and allows you to download videos to watch offline, currently has around 80 million subscribers worldwide. Fancybox supports YouTube, Vimeo and HTML5 videos out of the box. However these filters still work wonderfully in ublock origin. I don't like to keep adding browser extensions so a cleaner way would be to add these custom filters to your ad blocker. There’s some evidence to suggest it’s working, too. You can block annoying end cards, which is what YT calls the thumbnail previews at the end of a video in various ways. Although it runs on a different revenue model, Netflix is currently in the process of trying to crack down on password sharing as a means of driving up its subscriptions.

The approach isn’t a new one and certainly isn’t unique to YouTube. Which is a pretty big reason why the platform is taking a more aggressive stance. The site makes most of its revenue from ads and has seen a continued decline over the last three quarters. Also useful for avoiding spoilers or inappropriate. But a combination of add-blocker in the browser and pi-hole as a DNS filter gives very good results. YouTube is understandably concerned about keeping eyeballs on advertisements. Simply hides thumbnails on YouTube to have a more peaceful and less distracting browsing experience. With Pi-Hole Youtube will never be 100 ad-free.

It’s also unclear if or how viewers would be able to re-access the site after being blocked from watching. YouTube hasn’t revealed how many users have been served the notice, nor which countries it is running the trial in.

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