I think I have accidentally discovered a way of bypassing YouTube’s absurd ad regime.
Unfortunately it means that creators will lose out on ad revenue but the amount of advertising on Youtube is ridiculous as they try to push people onto their subscription model.
I prefer to watch YouTube on my TV rather than my computer (where there is no advertising) purely because larger screen, better sound etc
Anyway, how to remove all advertising:
First when you click “Play” onto a video that you want to watch, you will immediately get an ad up to about 20 seconds long, press the “Back” button on your remote control.
Then press “Play” again, if you get another ad press “Back” immediately. However sometimes it goes straight into the video after pressing “Play” the second time.
Press “Play” the third time and it will go straight into the video.
During the video you might get one of Youtube’s 55 second ads, this seems to depend on how long the video is. As soon as the ad starts press “Back” again.
Then press “Play”. One of three things will happen:
The video will commence from where it finished and will play to the the end ad free.
Or… The video will play from the beginning, just fast forward to the yellow dot which is where you were before. (You’ll see what I mean as soon as you do it)
It might play a short ad (rare) just press “Back” and “Play” again.
It will take you a lot longer to read this post than to actually do what it says which is basically pressing two buttons on the remote control alternately.
YouTube becomes a pleasure to watch again - at least for the time being.