It should be reasonably trivial to programmatically watch the frames; original programming will have mastered audio levels and set video compression; any shift to an ad should stand out like a sore thumb.

So as long as things aren’t locked down to a DRM’d player, it should be possible to fingerprint the audio and video stream content and drop any inserted frames that don’t match.

If YouTube decides to mangle the original content to fight back… then maybe that’s finally the impetus people will need to switch platforms.

I found that switching the user agent to android removes the ads, lol

I'm using revanced. Today was the first day to get advertising on their app. Hopefully they'll find a work around soon.

Rumble it is

It'll get beaten. SmartTube already detects and skips people saying "Don't forget to like and subscribe" and obviously any paid promotion sections. At this rate a 10 min video's going to be sliced down to 2 and I'll be none the wiser.

Even embedded ads will always be detectable because they always stick out. Be it audio, video, frame timing or the simple fact that an ad is always the same. They'd need to random generate dynamic AI ads and I don't think we're there yet, nor would most companies accept the possible public outrage when the AI content has a glitch or a different dynamic than what the marketing had in mind.

If youtu.be premium is actually ad free (and I can still run sponsor block) I can see paying for it. I get a lot of value out of it and can't really justify doing a lot of work to avoid paying.