YouTube Tests New Kind of Unskippable Ad [Video]

YouTube appears to be stepping up its long war on ad blockers this week. The creator of SponsorBlock, a crowdsourced ad blocker, posted a tweet on Wednesday claiming YouTube is experimenting with server-side ad injection. This would inject ads directly into a video’s stream, and render many ad blockers useless.

“YouTube is improving its performance and reliability in serving both organic and ad video content,” said a Google spokesperson in an emailed statement to Gizmodo, when asked if it was injecting server-side ads. “This update may result in suboptimal viewing experiences for viewers with ad blockers installed. Ad blockers violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, and we’ve been urging viewers for some time to support their favorite creators and allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad-free experience.”

The introduction of server-side ads only seems …