YouTube Launches Ad-Free Video Player For Education

In a blog post today, YouTube says it's launching an embeddable video player for education apps that removes ads, external links, and recommendations so viewers can "avoid distractions." The Verge reports: The ad- and recommendation-free player will be open to select partners to start, including education tech companies like EDpuzzle, Google Classroom, Purdue University, and Purdue Global. YouTube also announced new tools for creators making educational content on the platform -- including ways to charge viewers for their videos. Beginning next year, certain creators will be able to make free or paid "courses," with playlists of videos set up for audiences. If a viewer buys a course, they'll be able to watch the content ad-free and play the videos in the background. Courses will come to the US and South Korea first in beta.

Finally, YouTube announced a new quiz feature that creators can set up in the community tab on their channel that relates to the educational content they make. The company will introduce quizzes in beta in the coming months, with creators getting access to the feature next year.

Quiz Feature

[cstacy]

Sounds like an embedded SurveyMonkey kind of thing.

Can't wait to vote on "how big is this TV screen" and "what do you think, two-person shower?"

And, "Is that D# or Eb"?

What?

[mike449]

What? Youtube has ads? I didn't see those in years.

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[lytlebill]

Right? I just launched an ad-free youtube player myself. It's the same one I've been launching for years every time I start my browser with an ad-blocking extension installed.

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[Mononymous]

My daughter has told me there are ads on YouTube. They must have added them after the advent of adblocking.

Re: SponsorBlock

[Åke Malmgren]

"This video is sponsored by SponsorBlock(TM). Get SponsorBlock(TM) for the low price of $4.99 a month for the first three months using the code CorporateLackey. Now back to the video."

Re:

[anonymouscoward52236]

Someone please use AI to tag the beginning and end of sponsored sections of a video and skip over them. :-)

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[Opportunist]

I'm kinda ok with sponsoring since the revenue actually goes to the person making the video, and for those where the blurb really bothers me I can always fast forward through them, so they are actually less annoying than the constantly interrupting ads themselves.

And should a video maker really bother me with more than one ad spin per video, he just gets dropped from my playlist.

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[RockDoctor]

I'm kinda ok with sponsoring since the revenue actually goes to the person making the [...]

content. It brought us entertainment highs from "I Love Lucy" to "Coronation Street" (Hey, I wonder how they're going to try to keep "up to date"? I won't know for years. Probably some "Coronation Serial Killer" story line. They're onto about their 5th serial killer in one short terraced street. Rillington Place, Lancashire.)

Why do you think they're called "SOAP operas"?

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[Opportunist]

Oh c'mon, SOAP operas are so last gen. You should adapt to REST operas by now.

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[echo123]

Speaking as a long-time Andorid user, when relying only the google ecosystems of Apps, (gmail, chrome, YouTube player, Google News + Google Discover (swipe-right on the home scren for it), it's pretty tough for the average user to block ads, *especially* in the YouTube player, (and YTP ads + frequency are obnoxious).

Sure, you could use FireFox mobile with U-Block Origin for example, and it'll work well as a client-only solution, but average users won't.

What does work well against the Google ecosystem of App

Re: What?

[jazzdude00021]

Apple user here. I have a pi-hole instance running at home. Chrome desktop will get ads on pages that Safari wonâ(TM)t. I suspect that Chrome is ignoring my DNS (Pi-hole) and defaulting to Googleâ(TM)s when ads fail to load.

As to mobile apps, I donâ(TM)t care enough to try to completely block ads, but I do get them on YouTube iOS apps.

Just my $0.02

Ok

[ruddk]

But let me first tell you about this videos sponsor.

no thanks!

[e**(i pi)-1]

this should be built into youtube itself and not need a separate player, separate set-up, maybe even separate account. How long will this service exist? Until they decide it is not used enough and retired? Remember Google + All down the drain. It will probably happen also with this new service if creators see that nobody actually watches this proprietary stuff. What then? I myself was one of the original google video fans and when things moved over to youtube, all was lost. They argued that an automatic t

What about me?

[NewtonsLaw]

As a full-time YouTube content creator who is dependent on revenues from advertising, how will YouTube compensate me for the losses associated with playing my vids without ads?

We have a deal -- I provide the content, YouTube throws ads on it and we *SHARE* the revenues generated.

If YouTube is going to use my content without compensation I feel that they are operating in bad faith.

Even in the case of YouTube Premium customers, I get a share of their subscription fee every time they watch one of my videos but

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[esperto]

from what I understood you will have the option to charge for the video or series of videos, much like udemy, wondrium, etc., this will probably give you a much higher revenue (and for youtube also, as they get a big cut from it).
They are basically doing the youtube premium just for educators, with some bells and whistles.
and it took them long enough, there are so many other sites dedicated to this, is kind of a lost opportunity to not have started doing this years ago