YouTube Premium users are seeing ads; they shouldn’t be

Over the past few weeks, a handful of reports have surfaced regarding ads being shown for YouTube Premium subscribers, with one users sharing a support email that supposedly confirmed it was on purpose. YouTube, though, says Premium subscribers shouldn’t be seeing ads.

While YouTube Premium brings a variety of perks as a part of its monthly subscription, the biggest appeal comes from removing ads from videos. Pre-roll and mid-roll ads that support creators and the site are removed, with the cost of the monthly subscription contributing towards paying the various channels a viewer is watching.

However, it doesn’t take much digging to see quite a few recent reports of users who have been seeing ads even though they are Premium subscribers. These ads take on a variety of forms, including pre/mid-roll, as well as ads in the Home feed. One particular example has been making the rounds as of late from Germany. Notably, Google has been testing “Premium Lite” in Germany, where some ads still shown, and it’s not mentioned if the user here is on that plan or the full Premium.

Another Reddit thread shows an email from YouTube support where one subscriber was told that “promotional ads can sometimes appear for specific partnerships or limited-time offers,” in this case referring to the viewer’s experience of seeing an ad for YouTube TV’s NFL Sunday Ticket package. The support representative said this “could be due to a variety of reasons, such as your location, your viewing history, or a specific marketing campaign.”

When reached for comment, YouTube representatives told 9to5Google that it’s unclear exactly what’s happening in this specific case without additional information, but confirmed that YouTube Premium subscribers should not be shown any pre/mid-roll ads and should contact support if it does happen, pointing out that Premium subscribers may get “exclusive access” to rewards on the benefits page, but not in the videos themselves.

We occasionally offer YouTube Premium subscribers with exclusive access to a variety of rewards through our trusted partners – which can be found on their benefits page. YouTube Premium subscribers should not be shown any pre- or mid-roll ads and should contact support if this does happen.