Nothing has changed though. YouTube has been funding their infrastructure via ads for that last decade. Those of us who didn’t watch with ad block always had to watch more ads to help offset those who blocked ads.

As ad blockers have become more widespread, it had meant that YouTube has been needing to show more ads to everyone else, it was only a matter of time before they needed to do something about those blocking ads.

You always were breaking their EULA by blocking ads, and they aren’t changing any rules, you can still watch these same videos for free. And if you leave it really doesn’t matter to them because you were only costing them money.

… that’s why YouTube premium is a thing. Over 50% of the monthly subscription is distributed among the creators you view in a month.

Because ad spots don’t fit in well to videos. And they are a pain to negotiate and often (depending on the partner) limit what can be in the videos.

If we’re lucky, in time (and with enough YouTube premium subscribers) the need for YouTubers to have 3rd party sponsorships will decrease.

If we’re lucky, in time (and with enough YouTube premium subscribers) the need for YouTubers to have 3rd party sponsorships will decrease.

If we’re lucky, in time (and with enough YouTube premium subscribers) the need for YouTubers to have 3rd party sponsorships will decrease.

YouTube premium revenue is shared with creators based on view time. I don’t know what percentage of the subscription cost is shared (I believe I’ve read 55% is shared but I didn’t validate that right now, their help docs say “most” so it’s likely over 50%). As I understand it from income breakdown from creators, income from YouTube premium does often surpass Adsense income even when only a small percentage of viewers use YouTube premium.

The larger factor in them doing this is that the value of selling ads has been decreasing substantially the last few years. This means they need to show more ads to make the same money they did before.

This is also part of why every YouTube creator now does their own sponsored ads inside videos, trying to rely only on Adsense isn’t viable for them.

YouTube know they have a good product, and lots of people do subscribe to YouTube premium, there is no reason form them to force people onto YouTube premium when lots of people are willing to watch the ads.