YouTube's war on ad blockers continues, now making ads truly unskippable

YouTube ad-blocker users, prepare to stare at nothing for anywhere from 6 to 30 seconds.

Multiple YouTube users are now reporting on social media that YouTube is serving them with blank ads or black screens before a video when they are using an ad-blocker extension. The black screens appear for the length of a typical YouTube pre-roll or ad insert before displaying the actual content of the video the viewer wants to watch. 

In recent months, YouTube has made changes to stop users from skipping advertisements via third-party ad blocker extensions, which typically allow users to skip ads and jump right to the YouTube video content. Now, it appears that those ad-blocker users will still have to wait for their content, regardless of whether they can actually see the ad or not, which partially defeats the purpose of an ad blocker.

YouTube's push to Premium and permanently get rid of ad blockers

YouTube was obviously never fond of ad blockers, as advertisements on the platform are a major source of revenue for the company as well as its creators. However, YouTube really started to crack down on their use last year by serving ad-blocker users with a prompt to upgrade to another one of the company's revenue sources, YouTube Premium. 

For $13.99 a month, YouTube viewers can enjoy an ad-free experience through official channels. In turn, YouTube and its creators make revenue off those users who get to legitimately skip ads.

YouTube Premium has been a success, crossing 100 million paying subscribers earlier this year. Yet, many YouTube viewers still utilize ad-blocker extensions. Last month, YouTube unveiled its next course of action. The company began testing our server-side ad injection to further render ad blockers obsolete.

What does this mean? Previously, YouTube served video ads as a separate media component. The platform would basically show an ad before a video and then forward the viewer to the content once the advertisement was over. Ad blockers simply had to block the ad video, which in turn would immediately forward the user to the YouTube video that they wanted to watch.

With server-side ad injection, YouTube inserts the ad directly into the main YouTube video feed. Essentially, ad blockers can no longer see two separate pieces of media. It now appears as a single video stream. At the time, some ad blockers admitted that blocking ads would be more difficult but that there were still ways to do so. However, based on what ad-blocker users are seeing now, it appears that they are only achieving half of their intended goal. Ads are blocked but can't be skipped.

If ad-block users haven't experienced the black screen yet, it's likely because YouTube hasn't fully rolled out server-side ad injection across the platform. With YouTube's new ads, it seems like the only way to have an ad-free YouTube experience will soon be through YouTube Premium — at least until the ad blockers figure out a new workaround.