this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2025
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A lot of Youtube channels are reporting declining viewership lately.

EX1: https://youtube.com/watch?v=cpVnx4_yqTo
EX2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF0tmhEtVJE

Fun times. Looks like a lot of channels are seeing a decline not just Linus. Hes just the latest to talk about it.

Then I saw this article as well and thought I would share.

Anyone here youtube creators? Are you seeing the same thing, a general downturn in viewership?

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[–] fox2263@lemmy.world 69 points 5 months ago (14 children)

YouTube is hostile to viewers unless you pay them £20 a month.

It’s like 15 ads per 2 mins screen time with 2 being unstoppable and 1 being 3 minutes long. Slightly exaggerated but not far from the truth. It’s horrible. And they slow everything down too, the main video fake buffers whereas when you’re in premium it doesn’t.

I didn’t mind paying a fiver but had to do it via the moon to get it cheap but now they have stopped that.

[–] idefix@sh.itjust.works 33 points 5 months ago (4 children)

They are using automatic dubbing by default here in France! I was horrified the first time.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 5 months ago (1 children)

After some time it "learns" you don't want it.

But what grinds my gears instead are auto-translated video titles.
Because I am watching maybe 70-80% english content I decided the lesser evil is to just set the language to english instead.
Annoying as fuck but managable.

[–] leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 5 months ago

Because I am watching maybe 70-80% english content I decided the lesser evil is to just set the language to english instead.

Google has always made it extremely clear that they don't believe it's possible for the human brain to know more than one language, and that anyone who claims to know more than one is a liar and a witch and has no place in their platforms.

[–] 1Fuji2Taka3Nasubi@lemmy.zip 11 points 5 months ago

I hate them for auto translating the video titles and descriptions with no way to turn them off, I even installed an extension to restore the original titles but YT broke it again intentionally or unintentionally with their unending tweaks.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago

It horrifies me as a German. They also get titles, descriptions and comments wrong all the time. It legitimately doesn't work.

[–] poopkins@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This honestly doesn't surprise me, because English proficiency in France is below that of Spain, Russia and even Italy, which says a lot.

[–] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 months ago

That's because the french media industry is very strong, and virtually everything is dubbed.

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] fox2263@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I would but I primarily watch on my tv

[–] humanoidchaos@lemmy.cif.su 0 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I assume you're using a "smart" TV.

Those things only exist to take power away from you. You should hook up a PC or laptop to your TV with a wireless keyboard and mouse so you're not being herded by techbros.

[–] fox2263@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I’m quite happy with my Apple TV and Plex

[–] princeofspace@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I have the same setup as you and just pay the Premium. One thing I would recommend is getting isponsorblocktv on your server. It skips the ad reads within the YouTube content and works on Apple TV. Every year or so I look for a tracker doing YouTube or a sonarr YouTube fork. The instinct to hoard data is strong. But none have worked consistently for me.

[–] fox2263@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Ah good shout, I remember looking in to that a while back but never went ahead.

The hard thing about needing premium is I could likely easily not have it, but the scumbags limit downloads (cache) on YouTube kids to premium members, which comes in handy in a pickle for sure for my daughter.

[–] humanoidchaos@lemmy.cif.su 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Instead of using those, you could be using a free streaming site. You'll get more content and it's easier to set up.

Just type in the URL, and search for what you want.

Here's one of the best sites I've found: https://hydrahd.io/ I guarantee they have significantly more offerings than either apple tv or your plex.

[–] fox2263@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago (9 children)

Free streaming sites are awful. I prefer my way thank you.

And I don’t mind paying for things, just not getting ripped off.

I buy things on 4k that are special, then on iTunes for in between and then high seas everything else. I have a decent home server.

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[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Yeah fuck using a keyboard and mouse at 5 meters away. You really should roll a custom Linux box with a remote control setup and Plasma Bigscreen. Custom YouTube client too, for better visibility

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[–] 3dcadmin@lemmy.relayeasy.com 1 points 5 months ago

no smart tv but through a tv box (not android). Don't mind the ads when we watch on our projector, if I do I watch on wifes gaming pc also hooked up to projector

[–] Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

And God forbid you enable captions on the video or something - it'll disable itself every time an ad plays.

[–] Xatolos@reddthat.com 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

How do I turn that feature on?

I keep turning off captions off, and every few days they are automatically turned back on.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

"That's the neat part: Fuck you >:("
- Youtube

[–] 3dcadmin@lemmy.relayeasy.com 1 points 5 months ago

you can force a lot of options still when you upload a video OR provide a link. Plenty do that. For example in the tags add yt:cc=on will force on captions when you play a video

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 5 months ago

Yep agreed.
It's downright disgusting to browse youtube without premium or an adblocker.

Sadly I need premium simply because I am watching on an Android TV and I am not trusting third party clients with my google account.
Too much stuff is associated with it (monetary)

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 4 points 5 months ago

And then there is the occasional 30 minute to an hour infomercial that comes on obvious stuff people watch to go to sleep! I wanted someone softly talking about outer spacey things, not you're shitty product I give so much little of a fuck about that I didn't even look at what was being advertised. I hate you so much I will not even remember your name to give you free advertising by birding about you online!

[–] ILikeTraaaains@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

I have premium through a page that makes family groups and you pay a lot less. From time to time there is an issue with the group and you spend like two days without premium until it is fixed.

During those periods YT is unwatchable and I skip using it until the issue is fixed

[–] RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 months ago

I only pay them because I watch a stupid amount of YouTube. Hours a day, many more hours when not working.

If those ads come back while I'm paying though, the flag flies.

[–] kalleboo@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

On broadcast TV, a 30 minute timeslot had only 23 minutes of actual content and 7 minutes of ads.

That's what we're heading back to. 20% of the watch time is ads.

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