A recent thread on the YouTube TV subreddit highlights the desire among subscribers for a paid tier free of political ads. While YouTube TV doesn’t control the ads themselves, they are part of Google, which offers ad purchasing options. The article explores the challenges and possibilities of creating a political ad-free tier, ultimately highlighting the frustrations of users bombarded with political ads during election season.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has become the first political party in India to surpass the Rs 100 crore mark in political advertising on Google and YouTube since May 2018. The party has allocated over Rs 101 crore towards promoting its digital campaigns, equivalent to the combined expenditure of Congress, DMK, and IPAC. BJP’s ads accounted for approximately 26% of the total Rs 390 crore spent on political advertising on Google platforms, with over 161,000 content pieces published. Notably, Google’s definition of political ads encompasses ads from news organizations, government publicity departments, and even commercials featuring actor-politicians. Congress and DMK follow BJP in political spending on Google, allocating Rs 45 crore and Rs 42 crore, respectively. The majority of BJP’s ads targeted Karnataka, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Delhi, while Tamil Nadu emerged as the top target for political ads overall.
