{"id":904208,"date":"2026-05-07T08:16:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/07\/theres-an-easy-way-to-skip-youtubes-new-unskippable-ads-but-you-may-not-like-it\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T08:16:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T13:16:22","slug":"theres-an-easy-way-to-skip-youtubes-new-unskippable-ads-but-you-may-not-like-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/07\/theres-an-easy-way-to-skip-youtubes-new-unskippable-ads-but-you-may-not-like-it\/","title":{"rendered":"There&#8217;s an easy way to skip YouTube&#8217;s new unskippable ads, but you may not like it"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article-d8c9580f-3f91-4e1a-9e1d-5c70dccc36a0\" xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<figure>\n<div><picture><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\"  alt=\"Samsung RGB Micro LED TV at CES 2025\"><source media=\"(max-width: 1023px)\"  alt=\"Samsung RGB Micro LED TV at CES 2025\"><source media=\"(max-width: 1440px)\"  alt=\"Samsung RGB Micro LED TV at CES 2025\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/a\/img\/resize\/c040c7f9705ce9094cbb876a7fef41f1fdb32ddd\/2025\/01\/06\/68506bce-604c-4e8e-a8ed-c186845674dc\/dsc03142.jpg?auto=webp&#038;width=1280\" alt=\"Samsung RGB Micro LED TV at CES 2025\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><\/picture><\/div><figcaption> <span>Kerry Wan\/ZDNET<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Follow ZDNET: <\/em><span><a href=\"https:\/\/cc.zdnet.com\/v1\/otc\/00hQi47eqnEWQ6T9d4QLBUc?element=BODY&#038;element_label=Add+us+as+a+preferred+Google+source&#038;module=LINK&#038;object_type=text-link&#038;object_uuid=5e5d2e64-4b30-43e6-8555-26eac7e449f3&#038;position=1&#038;template=article&#038;track_code=__COM_CLICK_ID__&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fpreferences%2Fsource%3Fq%3Dzdnet.com&#038;view_instance_uuid=379e95d2-6b56-476b-a90b-043a8dd63bd3#link=%7B%22role%22:%22standard%22,%22href%22:%22https:\/\/cc.zdnet.com\/v1\/otc\/00hQi47eqnEWQ6T9d4QLBUc?element=BODY&#038;element_label=Add+us+as+a+preferred+Google+source&#038;module=LINK&#038;object_type=text-link&#038;object_uuid=5e5d2e64-4b30-43e6-8555-26eac7e449f3&#038;position=1&#038;template=article&#038;track_code=__COM_CLICK_ID__&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fpreferences%2Fsource%3Fq%3Dzdnet.com&#038;view_instance_uuid=379e95d2-6b56-476b-a90b-043a8dd63bd3%22,%22target%22:%22_blank%22,%22absolute%22:%22%22,%22linkText%22:%22Add%20us%20as%20a%20preferred%20source%22%7D\" rel=\"noopener nofollow sponsored\" target=\"_blank\"><span>Add us as a preferred source<\/span><\/a><\/span><em> on Google.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<h3>ZDNET&#8217;s key takeaways<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>YouTube now has 30-second unskippable ads.<\/li>\n<li>The ads only show on televisions for now.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>You can remove the ads for just $8 a month.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<p>Have you noticed that the &#8220;skip ad&#8221; button sometimes disappears on YouTube? You&#8217;re not alone.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past few weeks, users have been reporting that long, unskippable ads are appearing on YouTube videos when they&#8217;re watching on a TV. I noticed it myself a few days ago, did some research, and saw that yes, YouTube has <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.google\/products\/ads-commerce\/vrc-non-skip-ads-generally-available\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">a new ad option<\/a> that it calls &#8220;VRC Non-Skip.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The ads, which can be 6, 15, or 30 seconds long (Google AI will decide which length is appropriate in which instance), are designed to &#8220;ensure your message is delivered in its entirety,&#8221; Google says. However, viewers on the receiving end of these ads are using words like unsufferable, miserable, annoying, the final straw, and the breaking point.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Also: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/home-and-office\/home-entertainment\/youtube-tv-choose-from-12-cheaper-packages\/\">YouTube TV is offering 12 cheaper channel packages (including live sports) right now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After spending a few days with them, I&#8217;m inclined to agree that the new ads stink.<\/p>\n<p>I grew up with traditional cable TV, packed with minutes-long ad breaks, and I endured just fine. A forced 30-second break in the middle of a video shouldn&#8217;t be that big a deal, but it&#8217;s definitely frustrating to keep waiting for a &#8220;skip ad&#8221; button that never shows up.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Is YouTube Premium Lite finally worth it?<\/h2>\n<p>It&#8217;s probably no coincidence that the new ads debuted right about the time that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/home-and-office\/home-entertainment\/youtube-premium-vs-youtube-premium-lite\/\">a more affordable version of YouTube&#8217;s paid subscription<\/a> debuted &#8212; one that cuts some features of full Premium but still includes ad-free viewing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve never once considered paying for a YouTube subscription, but I&#8217;m on the fence now. I don&#8217;t want to be bullied into a subscription, but I watch quite a bit of YouTube on TV (so do other people, as YouTube now accounts for <a href=\"https:\/\/adwave.com\/resources\/youtube-tv-viewing-share-q4-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">12.7% of all US TV viewing time<\/a>), so the price might be worth it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Also: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/home-and-office\/home-entertainment\/youtube-premium-vs-youtube-premium-lite\/\">YouTube Premium vs. YouTube Premium Lite: Are the upgrades worth the $6 difference?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At $8 a month, YouTube Premium Lite is fairly enticing now since it gets you ad-free viewing, background play, and downloads on most videos. (The full $14-a-month Premium gets you those same features on <em>all <\/em>videos plus a subscription to YouTube Music.)<\/p>\n<p>I haven&#8217;t decided yet if I&#8217;ve reached the point that I&#8217;ll pay for YouTube or just watch less YouTube (who am I kidding, though, I&#8217;ll never quit), but I have decided I&#8217;m not cut out for watching ads.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div id=\"pinbox-d8c9580f-3f91-4e1a-9e1d-5c70dccc36a0\">\n<h4>Featured<\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/editorial-guidelines\/\" rel=\"follow\"><svg><use xlink:href=\"http:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/#file\" aria-hidden=\"false\" \/><\/svg><span>Editorial standards<\/span><\/a>   <\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/youtube-rolls-out-annoying-unskippable-ads\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kerry Wan\/ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET&#8217;s key takeaways YouTube now has 30-second unskippable ads. The ads only show on televisions for now.\u00a0 You can remove the ads for just $8 a month.\u00a0 Have you noticed that the &#8220;skip ad&#8221; button sometimes disappears on YouTube? You&#8217;re not alone. Over [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":904209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,104640,3016],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-904208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-theres","8":"category-youtube-videos","9":"category-youtubes"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}