YouTube Ads Are Too Long and Too Frequent, Users Complain — 5ch Thread: ‘Even 5 Seconds Is Too Much, I’d Rather Pay ¥1,000’

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The story

A thread titled “On the Problem of YouTube Ads Getting Too Frequent and Too Long,” posted on 5ch’s Nandemo Jikkyo (Live) board, drew a wave of complaints about back-to-back unskippable ads. Commenters split into three camps — those sticking with free, ad-supported viewing, those who switched to a paid Premium subscription, and those relying on ad blockers — and the debate escalated into mockery over each other’s financial situations. The discussion spread to cover ads on newspaper sites, TVer, Abema, and radio commercials, exposing widespread fatigue with online advertising in general.

What people said

1AnonymousSep 25, 2026 00:59
Way too many cases now where three ads play back to back in a row. And you can't even skip them.
3AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:00
They're way too desperate to push everyone into Premium.
47AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:19
Re: #3
People actually memorizing the ads just to avoid paying — that's desperate on a whole other level.
5AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:00
Just pay the ¥1,000. No more stress, and you stop wasting several minutes of your life every single video.
7AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:01
Re: #5
No way I'm paying. The whole point is that it's free.
11AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:03
The entire internet is ads, as always.
13AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:04
Re: #11
What really pisses me off is newspaper sites. Close the ad and another one pops right back up — you can't read the article at all.
17AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:06
Re: #13
Nobody's reading it anyway, so no problem.
12AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:04
Didn't ad-block sites get cracked down on or something?
14AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:05
Re: #12
The old ones got shut down, but it's just a cat-and-mouse game.
18AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:07
Is there even a point to running that many ads, though? If an ad's long or plays over and over, I make a point of never using that product.
21AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:08
Re: #18
Exactly. Pushy, repetitive ads feel like they'd backfire on the advertiser.
23AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:09
Re: #18
You weren't gonna use it anyway. And look — you remembered to say "I won't use it!" The ad's clearly working on you.
19AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:07
Still, YouTube through those block-sites is a pain to watch. Picture quality's bad too.
20AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:08
Re: #19
What's this "block-site" you keep going on about? You don't know about browser extensions?
24AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:09
Re: #20
I've used both Brave and AdGuard.
25AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:10
I'd let it slide if every single ad could be skipped after 5 seconds.
27AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:11
Re: #25
Even 5 seconds is too much. I'd rather just pay the ¥1,000.
29AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:12
Guess YouTube isn't making much money either — Premium subscribers just aren't growing.
32AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:15
Re: #29
With semiconductor and memory prices skyrocketing lately, server costs must be brutal for them. I mean, it's still free to watch even with the ads.
35AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:16
If they're gonna do that, they should demonetize the scammy channels instead.
54AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:20
Re: #35
Someone's jealous of people actually making money, lol.
46AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:19
Do online ads even work? I've never once thought about buying something because of an ad. If anything they just breed resentment.
67AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:27
Re: #46
That's the sleeper effect (a psychology term for when you forget the shady source but the message still sticks).
56AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:21
Re: #54
Why are you replying to me so desperately?
58AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:22
Re: #56
It's an ad — feel free to skip it, you know?
60AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:23
Nah, it wasn't like this before. It's suddenly ramped up recently.
64AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:25
Brave is so smooth it's hilarious. Turns out I never needed to pay for Premium at all.
79AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:35
Abema's the worst — sometimes you wake your device up and get hit with 5 commercials in a row right off the bat.
81AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:38
Re: #79
If you watch Abema in picture-in-picture mode, the ads don't show up.
82AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:39
TVer is basically "content you cannot escape ads on." Honestly impressive they've locked it down that tight.
88AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:45
Re: #82
Use AdGuard or uBlock and they don't show up.
90AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:48
Way too long. I was listening to a radio show and before I knew it some insanely long commercial had started without me noticing — I was thinking "man, this is a boringly dull topic" and it turned out to be an ad.
92AnonymousSep 25, 2026 01:51
Re: #90
Was that the "Corporate Nippon" segment on ANN? That's technically treated as a regular segment within the show, not a commercial.

Background and Key Points

In recent years, YouTube has been inserting unskippable ads back-to-back with increasing frequency, a trend widely attributed to diversifying revenue streams and rising infrastructure costs. The thread split into three camps — those sticking with free viewing, those who switched to a paid Premium subscription, and those using ad blockers — and the disagreement notably escalated into jabs about each other’s financial situations. The “sleeper effect” mentioned in post 67 is a psychological concept describing how information from a low-credibility source can grow more persuasive over time; it was invoked here to suggest that even resentment toward an ad can stick in memory and still function as advertising. The thread also touched on how avoiding ads has become increasingly difficult across streaming services in general, including TVer and Abema.

*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo board) thread “On the Problem of YouTube Ads Getting Too Frequent and Too Long.”

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