Broadcasters Put New Ad-Skipping Restrictions on YouTube TV YouTube last week launched YouTube TV in a handful of markets (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, and Philadelphia), providing access to more than 50 live TV channels for $35 per month. And while Google and YouTube are hoping that the company's new YouTube TV live streaming service makes waves in the streaming space, the inability to skip commercials may annoy some potential customers. If a show is available on-demand, viewers won’t be able to skip ads, even if they recorded the episode on DVR notes the Wall Street Journal.

Google has confirmed with the Journal that the restriction is courtesy of the licensing agreements the broadcast industry forced Google to adhere to in order to offer the service. As a result, if YouTube TV has the on-demand version of a specific program you may be interested in, then the service won’t let viewers watch a recorded version that allows for ad-skipping. Instead, viewers are forced to watch the on-demand episode and all of the ads, even if consumers thought they saved the show on their DVR for ad-skippable viewing. The restrictions actually appear to be new, and haven't been an issue on other services like Dish's Sling TV. The additional restrictions may reflect the broadband, TV and broadcast industry's collective worry about competition from Google in the streaming video space. The Journal also suggests it's a reflection of many broadcasters' punishing Google for what they believe is the company's failure to do more about piracy. Either way, the Journal suggests that these types of ad-skipping restrictions may ultimately show up in licensing deals tied to other emerging streaming video services, a move that's certain to annoy many cord cutters.







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Most recommended from 44 comments

elefante72

join:2010-12-03

East Amherst, NY 26 recommendations elefante72 Member Ads, nope I received a 2 month sling promo and was playing with it the last few days. This isn't the DVR product, but they have a catch up button which will let you on some channels start at the beginning of a show. I was trying to do this and it will let you skip commercials sometimes, but then sometimes in the same show it just locks you out and then you have to watch the entire show including commercials.



IMHO unless you can skip commercials, the product is useless. So for now I will stick w/ my antiquated Tivo and linear TV.



There is NO way to put the bottle back in. People have been using OTT for years without commercials, they aren't going back so they will need to figure out a new way to monetize like spying. Well they already do that, maybe they want you to give blood. I don't want ads, I just want content, period. Kamus

join:2011-01-27

El Paso, TX 15 recommendations Kamus Member this is why cable TV is terrible. When cable TV started. The whole point was to pay to not have ads...



We all know how that turned out, with cable TV being nothing but ads on most channels.



This is a dying format, and it can't disappear soon enough.



It's overpriced, it has shitty picture quality and on demand is better for pre-recorded media in every way.

Anon93f59

@rr.com 14 recommendations Anon93f59 Anon I signed up for the free trial, but cancelled it a few days later, I just can't stand ads. If I am paying money to watch content I expect it to be like Netflix ZERO ads. There isn't even an option like Hulu, where you can pay more to watch zero ads. ISurfTooMuch

join:2007-04-23

Tuscaloosa, AL 9 recommendations ISurfTooMuch Member My solution Annoy me enough, and I just won't watch at all. These companies seem to think that TV is something we absolutely cannot live without. Sorry guys, but you're dead wrong. They also seem to think that their revenue has to keep going up, up, up. Again, sorry, revenue can indeed go down, and if that means buying a smaller corporate jet, possibly without the gold-plated toilet, so be it.



There are plenty of things competing for my time and money these days, so TV can just get in line with all the rest. afn06011

join:2012-10-15

Florida 8 recommendations afn06011 Member Pay to watch commercials.... Pay to watch commercials? No Way! Pay me to watch your commercials? Maybe. b10010011

Whats a Posting tag?

join:2004-09-07

Bellingham, WA 8 recommendations b10010011 Member LOL, I am one step ahead of them



»www.hauppauge.com/site/p ··· vr2.html



If you are willing to start recording a movie then wait 15 minutes, before you start watching the recording you can skip through commercials as you watch and record the rest of it. Lets see them try to stop me from skipping commercials when I record a movie on this DVR.If you are willing to start recording a movie then wait 15 minutes, before you start watching the recording you can skip through commercials as you watch and record the rest of it. elray

join:2000-12-16

Santa Monica, CA 7 recommendations elray Member They never learn... Hubris didn't work with Google TV. It isn't going to work with Youtube TV either.



If they want to be competitive, they need to offer their anemic lineup at an appropriate price-point, like SlingTV, and support industry-standard STB's. mmay149q

Premium Member

join:2009-03-05

Dallas, TX 4 recommendations mmay149q Premium Member Just curious I wonder if this would apply to someone who has a Pi-Hole DNS server installed in their house that purposely blocks ad's? I mean if it's not like Hulu where it breaks the stream and tells you to turn off your ad blocker, then you could technically watch anything live ad-free and your recordings would be missing the ad's as well, at least that's how it works for YouTube at my house.... Lol if it doesn't allow that, then that's fine, they'll just push more people into pirating, their loss