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I see a lot of people saying this is unfair to content creators. I understand that sentiment when it comes to blocking normal ads, since revenue is based on ad

I see a lot of people saying this is unfair to content creators. I understand that sentiment when it comes to blocking normal ads, since revenue is based on ad views; that's why I don't run AdBlock on YouTube. But when it comes to in-video sponsored sections, can the sponsors actually tell whether viewers watched that particular segment of the video? If not, this seems like the most ethical kind of adblock: creators still get paid, but you don't have to watch the (usually scammy) ads.

meowface 7y ago
The problem is eventually this or something like this will probably catch on, and then sponsors will pressure YouTube into creating a system to provide metrics on who watches certain parts of videos. It doesn't sound that hard to do on a technical level, and I believe this is already available to creators in some way. Way less work than automagically detecting copyrighted audio and video, which they already do with Content ID.
- ajayyy 7y ago
  This already exists. You can see realtime (per second of the video) engagement statistics. It shows drops in sponsored sections normally and it pickup back up right after.
  - meowface 7y ago
    Right, but can sponsors themselves access this data via an API or something, currently? Asking the creator to email engagement metrics screenshots every week isn't too practical.
    - ajayyy 7y ago
      It is private. I don't think they would really care and would more care about link clicks.
      - meowface 7y ago
        True. The people who use these blockers/skippers would essentially never visit those links in the first place, so it may not really make a difference in the end.