Russia residents excluded from testing a new YouTube video hosting feature to combat ad blockers, reports TASS citing a source familiar with the situation.
“Russia is not participating in the test,” said one source. During testing, it was noted that viewers are encouraged to allow ads on video hosting or try a paid subscription to YouTube Premium.
The YouTube press service pointed out that the fight against ad blockers is a small experiment in several countries that encourages viewers to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium.
“Discovering ad blockers is nothing new, and other publishers regularly ask viewers to turn off ad blockers,” a YouTube spokesperson said.
Previously, YouTube users using ad blockers started getting pop-up notifications about their ban on the platform. It is recommended that users subscribe to a paid YouTube Premium subscription to watch videos without ads or to continue watching with ads.
Since spring 2022, residents of Russia have not seen ads while watching YouTube videos without paying a Premium subscription. Also, the video hosting has disabled monetization for bloggers in Russia if the video is viewed by a user from Russia. At the same time, Russians still need to pay Premium to listen to videos in the background.