So, I'm in my final year at university and I'm doing a research project, the title of which is currently "To what extent has adblocking software reduced the ability of Youtube channels to generate revenue? (And is Youtube's revenue model sustainable)?" (however this title is likely to change with the release of Youtube Red and the information I gain).
Anyway, I'd really like to get some of your opinions and thoughts of adblocking software. Do you use it? Are you planning on signing up to Youtube Red? Would you be willing to if the price was right? And what might that price be? Do you think there could be an alternative revenue model where you could perhaps have Youtube credit and pay say a penny/cent for each Youtube video you watch if you subscribe to a channel.Or if Bitcoin was more widely adopted could this help increase donations due to the minimal charges of transferring money (unlike Paypal).
Yeah, just any thoughts you have on this sort of thing would be a massive help, especially if I'd be able to quote it!
In YouTube Red, YouTube takes a step to avoid the need for ads to generate revenue. I see it as a Patreon with a share for the existence of channels on YouTube. YouTube is there, it is like a sandbox on a playground. If there is no more room to creat something new, it has to be extended or older projects (in case of YT videos) need to be removed. As noboby wants their videos to be deleted the logical thing for YT to do is setting up more servers. Most consumers do not even think about the hardware, software and workforce required to keep the site alive. With the decline of income by ads and more people donating directly to their favourite producers it is logically for YouTube to experiment with a paid version. I really have no idea why people get upset about the share of money the producers get and the share YouTube keeps. Just imagine YouTube telling everyone on December 29. of this year: "YouTube will end with the 01.01.1016" That would lead people to become even more upset. But hey, no money, no service! That is how the world rules at this point. I do not use Adblocker, but as YouTube Red is a smartphone thing for now, I will not use it as I do not have a Smartphone.
I'd pay for it if the overall cost was lower (I don't use YouTube much) and my payment went only to the content creators of the videos I actually watch, of course minus what YT keeps for themselves.
Personally I don't use an adblocker, however I think that revenue wont affect people HUGELY who are creating content, especially if they are buying other items from the creator (e.g Zweihander Albums).
That's cool your doing a research paper on this, be sure to post a link to it here when it is finished.
One of the things I see that seems to get missed when discussing ad blocking, is the fact that the advertising industry will still spend about the same amount on advertising irrespective of ad blocking. In other words, the demand for advertisements hasn't changed. Advertisers will thus likely be doing a combination of looking for other forms to deliver ads (e.g. native advertising) and paying more per ad delivered; basic econ if the supply of ads goes down from ad blocking the price goes up.
Finally, I remember hearing rumors that Youtube was eventually just going to disallow ad blockers, so that you can't watch a video with ad blocker on.
Also, there was recently a good discussion of Youtube Red on NPR On Point:
One thing I took away was that a big portion of the value of Youtube Red is the music, basically you get a similar catalog of songs to Spotify or Apple Music, in addition to all of the live/unreleased music that is available from Youtube, which is apparently in the millions for the same price. Then you add to that ad free videos and offline viewing (big for mobile) and it seems to be a pretty good deal
I know a couple creators have said that maybe only 20-30% of their views are monetized because of adblock, so youtube red is going to be a big boost to everyone in the creator space especially if youtube starts taking steps to block users that have adblock enabled. Sites like hulu block users if they have adblock enabled, and if youtube does this it would mean a gigantic spike in revenue. If a creator only is currently monetizing 20% of their views, but all the sudden all of those people that weren't monetized start disabling adblock or subscribe to Red, they could see a gigantic increase in revenue. Maybe youtube doesn't block adblock users, still creators might still make a couple bucks more off red subscribers. I'll probably subscribe to red just to get away from shitty 30 second un-skipable ads, and for background play on mobile. Hell maybe if you can share youtube red with your family I'll even split the cost with my little brother.
Quite honestly, I use an adblocker on YouTube and most of the internet (not this site because I literally can't find the ads, plus I love TS too much), and I wasn't planning on getting YouTube Red. However, since I already have a subscription to Google Play Music All Access (these names are ridiculous), I have YouTube Red, which I just consider a free perk. The good thing is, I (supposedly) support the content creators for the videos I watch, and I'm not paying more than I was for just the music subscription.
Of course, Zweihander albums and awesome pants for my arms are always deserving of my spare money.
I would not care if youtube shuts down, sure I like to watch a couple of channels, but I wouldn't miss them eather. I use adblock, because a 15s ad is annoying me. Paying 5$ a month is too much for me, for those 5 channels I watch. And sometimes I don't even watch the videos, because they are talking, doing something I'm not interested in. So paying 5$ for maybe 2-3 videos a month is just to much.
If the Ads will be in the video itself, I would probably stop watching it all together. It's the same with the TV, I just don't watch it any more, because of the 5-10min commercials. I rather stare in the sky, then watch ads.
I am the same way. I watch a couple of channels but am not a big Youtuber. I do use AdBlocker except on sites that I like. What will happen to the old Youtube I wonder? Will people ditch AdBlockers rather then buy into YTR? Guess will have to see.
i started off using adblock for everything, then slowly over time built up a white-list of content creators and businessess' websites that I do not run adblock on.
i would pay maybe 3 USD a month for youtube red, but definately no more than 5 USD a month.
ad blockers the only way to experience the net with out annoying popups. unwanted screen take over and added noise. seriously who wants an ad that has voice and music that plays with out any interaction. i want my net experience to be similar to the early 90s no ads just content.
preroll ads on any site disgust me wait x seconds while force you to watch something you dont want to watch. im sorry i moved to internet to get away from the freaking ads. if i wanted to watch ads or commercials i would have stayed with broadcast TV.
those who say that ads are the only way for a site to make money and stay afloat i call bullshit. the only thing that keeps a website alive is its members. i run ad block on all sites that i am a member of and dont feel guilty in the least as i give to them. any website that has memberships and still has ads displayed for the members i feel they earned all of the contempt i can give.
I'll stop using adblock when websites stop using those annoying ass pop-ups, let malicious content through their ads because they don't curate them, and they stop taking up a significant amount of resources to render and download.
Until then, I don't give a fuck. I'm not dealing with ads.
If I really care I'll support them by other means like I do with tek syndicate, but quite frankly I think that if we want truly free speech then we need to gaurantee public server space that people are free to set up their own services with in a way that doesn't require websites to whore themselves out to ads. We do this for roads, libraries, etc, let's just expand it to web servers ffs, this is the 21st century. You can still have a private server if you're affluent enough, but at least this way we would have a public internet infrastructure that isn't an ad-ridden piece of cobbled together shit.
Adblock - Do you use it? No. If a site uses excessive advertisements, I don't go there unless I'm very desperate and then I can tolerate a pornado for a few seconds.
Are you planning on signing up to YouTube red? Maybe. It initially wont be available in my country, and if they start pulling the region crap like other services and charging a higher price etc then it'll turn me off entirely.
Alternative Model If I was paying $10 a month, I would like the option to take a chunk of that (say $5-8) and go towards videos where I've actually clicked Thumbs Up or similar. The problem is my money is going to get wasted, because I often setup youtube to watch documentaries or compilation videos (which haven't been published by their creators half the time) and watch for hours/fall asleep - but the people who really deserve that money are guys like Tek Syndactive, eevBlog, LGR etc
One thing you ought to consider is google's heavy hand in metadata software, more specifically Analytic APIs, which have grown a lot in the last couple years. Yes, as a matter of fact, the software does give google another revenue stream- but not so much for the content creator. Like @GeneralEquilibrium says, the advertisers are still going to pay for ads regardless of whether we use adblock. No, you really can't 'block' these extensions, because a new one will always take the place of one that doesn't work. Hulu is supposed to stop me from using the site when I have adblock on, instead my ads are simply black for thirty seconds. One of my peers is going to do analytic for a small tech startup, all with google's API. I don't think I will consider the service- unless it can replace my current music service, spotify. Youtube has a pretty good selection of content- but hardly anything I would want to pay for in this day and age though. I think this is kind of a question of market adaptation, evolution so to speak. I'm taking an introductory journalism class that is pretty vested in new journalism, specifically alternate revenue streams, sometimes with vertical/horizontal integration that we see in big companies like Time Warner. Everybody has to adapt to the new age consumer. Subscriptions seem to be a logical choice- but that's only for now.
Well, since I'm paying for Google Play Music already, as far as I have understood, I'll get YT Red along with it so I guess I'll be using it. Although I'd not pay for it seperately.
YouTube has not been profitable in a long time (or ever?) so I guess they had to do something to get in some money?
As long as the content is still accessible without having to pay for it, I don't mind the idea. Yet using stuff such as uBlock might get harder to use ^^
On the topic of adblocking I found this article by James Williams ( Balliol College, Oxford | technology, design, ethics) highl highly interresting and worth a reading. Its about the etics involved within adblocking.
I use Ad blocking software simple because I don't want to see ads; I don't care about random youtubers getting paid. I only support the people that I watch regularly. Ads are a waste of my time. Think about how much time watching ads takes up after about a year. Banners are fine but a 30 second video before the content I want to see? No thank you. That's like if the LED panels in times square would "monitor arm" themselves off of the wall next to you and block your path for 30 seconds.
I won't be using Youtube Red because I already have everything they offer for free, and because I'm selfish.
In the case of Tek Syndicate, I disable video ads but I allow banner ads on the forum. I also donate to Tek Syndicate and buy a lot of their merchandise.
I have been blocking ads for a while now and will not stop doing so. No whitelist, no exceptions. It's not just the intrusiveness of the ads, it's the malicious ones that I want to avoid. And no matter how much site owners may curate them, something will at some point get through.
My personal data and that of my customers is more important to me than the 20 cents in ad revenue you'd get off my monthly visits. I'll help in another way, even if it's just by helping people in the forums so those grow.
As for Youtube Red, I only use Youtube behind a VPN and a spoofed MAC and never log in. I don't even have a Youtube account. There's absolutely zero chance that I'd sign up for something like Red, IMO it's just another tool to mine your data.