Colleagues using Canvas should be aware of a recent change affecting YouTube videos embedded within their courses. Due to updates in YouTube’s monetisation policies, videos embedded directly into Canvas may now display adverts.
This change will take effect on 22nd September 2025.
This is happening as over the recent years, video content has become a staple in learning environments and monetisation of that content has become increasingly important to those creators, many of which are educators themselves. As a result, Google/YouTube has evolved its model and approach to this.
It applies to both newly added and previously embedded videos, and the adverts are controlled entirely by YouTube.
Unfortunately, there is no way to disable these adverts within the standard Canvas environment.
To warn viewers of the potential of adverts being displayed, Canvas has introduced a new content overlay warning. This message appears before a video plays, alerting viewers that the video may contain advertising.
On desktop browsers, the warning is shown prior to playback, while on the Canvas mobile apps, it appears at the top of the page.
An example of this notice can be seen below:
If you have any questions regarding this change, please contact ltds@newcastle.ac.uk.