YouTube, a popular video streaming platform that is witnessing a decline in ad revenue, has now confirmed that it is testing a more aggressive way to stop the usage of ad blockers on the platform. The company was earlier working on a small experiment in the month of May.

The effort attempted to persuade users to stop using ad blockers and, instead, to subscribe to the premium service if they want an ad-free experience. According to the allegation, the company has begun to display a popup requesting customers to quit using ad blockers.

Google spokeswoman Oluwa Falodun told The Verge via email, "Ad blocker detection is not new, and other publishers regularly ask viewers to disable ad blockers."

"We take disabling playback very seriously and will only disable playback if viewers repeatedly ignore requests to allow ads on YouTube. If viewers believe they have been wrongly identified as using an ad blocker, they can provide feedback by clicking on the link in the alert," Oluwa said.

With this action, it is evident that YouTube is ready to impose strict rules against ad blockers and is defending the move by asserting that all of those ads are required for content creators to be compensated for their work and for the site to remain free. In an official statement, the company claimed that "YouTube's ad-supported model supports a diverse ecosystem of creators, and provides billions of people access to content for free with ads."

YouTube Premium Costs, And Benefits

YouTube Premium provides ad-free access to the service for $11.99 per month or $119.99 per year (along with other benefits like offline downloads and YouTube Music Premium). The company said in November of last year that the combined membership of YouTube Premium and YouTube Music had topped 80 million. Meanwhile, the company’s YouTube Music subscription is getting a good response.