You all should be supporting #Peertube instances more to give your viewers the option to see your videos without ads.

This came in an AdBlock email.

YouTube plays a trump card against ad blockers

#YouTube has unveiled a new tactic to combat ad blockers: "server-side ad insertion," which embeds ads directly into video content. This approach makes it much harder for ad blockers to distinguish ads from the actual video, as both are delivered as a single stream. While ad blockers are currently hamstrung by this method, it is not an obstacle that is completely unsurmoutable [sic].

The new ad delivery method should be seen as part of a bigger picture. Over the past year, YouTube has escalated its anti-ad blocker efforts, starting with pop-up messages and a three-strikes policy threatening to halt video playback. Despite YouTube’s attempts to tighten all the loose screws, ad blockers have adapted but YouTube is likely to throw more wrenches into their works.

This new tactic, though more sophisticated, isn’t entirely new for YouTube, which has used similar methods in its mobile apps. The potential implications are nonetheless significant, particularly for ad-blocking extensions, which struggle more against this technique than standalone apps. The ad-blocking community is not sitting idly by though. We’ve already implemented short-term fixes, and are working on robust strategies to combat YouTube's latest onslaught.