YouTube Is Killing Its Own Ads. Here’s Why

In this video, I break down something strange that’s happening with YouTube. If you’ve felt like ads are getting longer, more frequent, and harder to skip, you’re not the only one. And if you’ve noticed YouTube pushing you to buy Premium every time you open the app, that’s not random either. There’s a deeper strategy at play. But the question is - YouTube makes most of its money from ads (billions of dollars each year), so why is it now trying so hard to get rid of them? In this episode, I’ll explain how Premium subscribers disappear from YouTube’s ad ecosystem, taking away the exact audience advertisers want to target. I’ll also talk about the shift to TV screens, where digital ads just don’t work the same way. And why YouTube, like many platforms, is now chasing subscription revenue for one big reason: predictability. This shift might be a sign that the ad-supported internet model, which built companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon, is finally starting to crack. And as always, a big thank you to Zerodha’s Zero1 Network for supporting these deep dives into the world of marketing and brands. 00:00 - Intro 01:12 - YouTube Premium Features 01:29 - Losing Best Users to No-Ad Feature 02:30 - YouTube's Global Revenue Inequality 03:31 - India's Massive Opportunity 04:19 - Tiered Monetisation Strategy 05:17 - The YouTube TV Problem 05:50 - Performance Measurement Crisis 07:05 - End of the Ad Era? 07:36 - Outro