How to Block YouTube Ads on Your Android TV

The experience of watching YouTube videos somehow gets worse, and if you watch them on your smart TV, be prepared to see a lot of 30-second unskippable ads before your video even starts. As if that’s not enough, YouTube may also start showing you ads when you pause a video. Luckily, there are two ways out of this: you can either pay for YouTube Premium (no) or find a better alternative to the YouTube app.

Choose an app that will block YouTube ads on your smart TV.

SmartTubeNext allows you to block YouTube ads on Android TV devices. It supports Chromecast built-in TVs, Amazon Fire TV streaming sticks, Xiaomi Mi Box streaming device, Nvidia Shield and many other Android TV streaming devices. If you have a supported device, you can follow the instructions on the SmartTubeNext GitHub page to install it.

You only need to install it manually once. Once you have installed the application, it will be able to update itself. SmartTubeNext blocks all ads on YouTube and even has a built-in SponsorBlock extension, which means you’ll also be able to skip reading ads and other sponsored segments in your favorite YouTube creators’ videos.

You can also use the picture-in-picture mode for free with SmartTubeNext. This is great for those who like to watch YouTube videos, say while streaming a live sports game from another app. The app also supports casting and voice search, and you should check out its GitHub page to learn how to set it up for your device.

It’s important to note that SmartTubeNext only works as a replacement for the YouTube app. You cannot use it in place of the YouTube TV app used to watch live TV channels. And as good as SmartTubeNext sounds in theory, once you start using it, you may notice that its interface isn’t quite as polished as Google’s official offering. Still, it’s a small price to pay for getting rid of ads, especially since it’s getting worse every year.

You can also get YouTube Premium for a low price.

If SmartTubeNext doesn’t work on your device, consider getting YouTube Premium, but use the workaround to get a better deal. Use a good VPN and open private browsing mode on your browser to find the best deals from other countries. For example, YouTube Premium costs less than $2 per month in Argentina, India, and Turkey, compared to $12 per month in the US.

Try your luck by subscribing to YouTube Premium in one of these regions and you’ll be ad-free forever.