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Many youtubers have sponsorships though, and their viewership stats come into play when negotiating with potential sponsors. I guess if everyone was hit equall

by pilaf 1y ago

Many youtubers have sponsorships though, and their viewership stats come into play when negotiating with potential sponsors. I guess if everyone was hit equally across the board then those sponsors will eventually adjust to the new metrics, but I assume some genres have more tech-savvy audiences which are more likely to use ad-blockers, so I'm not sure how evenly distributed this penalty falls.

tehwebguy 1y ago
The automated “Skip Ahead” button (which I use daily) is already hostile to sponsorships. I would not be at all surprised to see them hitting sponsors on multiple fronts.
- johanyc 1y ago
  > The automated “Skip Ahead” button (which I use daily) is already hostile to sponsorships Is it? If I proactively click skip, that means that sponsor is offering something of no use to me. As the sponsor, they successfully make an impression for a second or two anyway. And as a viewer that skip ahead button is much better than pressing right arrow button multiple times
  - everforward 1y ago
    The brand recognition is worth something. I haven't been in the market for new headphones in a long time, but I still know the name Raycon from the bajillion sponsorships they do. Likewise with NordVPN and Raid: Shadowlegends. Never used any of them, don't really intend to, but I do know the name.
  - recursive 1y ago
    There's a shift in tone of voice or ham-fisted segue that gives it away before they even name the sponsor. I can usually click the button before they even name the sponsor.
    - k12sosse 1y ago
      The best creators build these ad reads wearing different clothes.
- a2tech 1y ago
  Google is not getting a cut of that sponsorship money. They don't care if it wrecks your deal. They want your ONLY source of income to be Youtube. If you're fully beholden to Youtube, there will be no escape, no way for you to leave and take your viewership with you. Remember how Youtube used to be a nice cage with lots of air holes and fun toys to occupy you? Light ad enforcement, tools to help you build your viewership etc? People are starting to feel the pinch of those being removed. That cool room is starting to look like what it really is--an industrial cage.
  - Andrex 1y ago
    I think it's less ominous than that. Skip Ahead is only for Premium subscribers. The logic probably being native-ads/sponsorships are in fact ads, and Premium users are paying for an ad-free experience.
  - PeterisP 1y ago
    It's interesting that I just read an inteview with YouTube CEO (https://stratechery.com/2025/an-interview-with-youtube-ceo-neal-mohan-about-building-a-stage-for-creators/ https://stratechery.com/2025/an-interview-with-youtube-ceo-n...) who mentioned that YouTube fully intends to start getting a cut out of that sponsorship money ("to align interests better").
  - eastbound 1y ago
    > They want your ONLY source of income to be Youtube. I’m not sure. They want influencers to make profit using their platform, so they want to make them rich. On the viewcount, a skipped sponsor still looks like a view. No sponsor is going to look at the proportion of watching each part of the video, they just care about the view counter. What Youtube may want, though, is for paying customers to be able to skip ads. “If you pay you should have no ads”.
    - kelnos 1y ago
      > What Youtube may want, though, is for paying customers to be able to skip ads. “If you pay you should have no ads”. It feels rare that I agree with Google on anything these days, but if that is the case... sounds fair.
- nonameiguess 1y ago
  Skipping sponsored segments is not necessarily a reflection of hostility. My wife has been subscribed to the Factor meal service for over three years, yet all of my favorite podcasts are constantly hawking it, and I don't particularly feel like sitting through 20 sales pitches a day for something I already purchased. There is unfortunately no way to communicate that information to either the channel owner or the sponsor.
  - stevage 1y ago
    I'm always just amazed how damn long they can be. On some channels I watch they are 2 to 3 minutes long every video. It would be madness to sit through that.
- downrightmike 1y ago
  in video you can just hit a number to go to the next chunk 1,2,3,4,5 etc. just hit 8 or 9 if you want to see if there is anything of value in a 10 minute video that should have been 30 seconds, but youtube wants 10 minutes
  - k12sosse 1y ago
    It's actually [0-9] percentage of the video length times 9, more or less
- nozzlegear 1y ago
  Truly one of the best updates they've made to the YouTube app on Apple TV (and presumably other tv operating systems) of all time. Just one tap of the remote and we can skip all of the "sponsored by Made In" nonsense. Edit: I guess this is a YouTube premium feature?
secondcoming 1y ago
Surely YT know if a video has sponsored content and so can refuse to play the video - or even not suggest it - if the user is using adblockers?
- SilverbeardUnix 1y ago
  YT would start a revolt among Youtubers if they did this.
themafia 1y ago
It's wild to me that advertisers are willing to use first party metrics. In any other media business you'd have a certified third party ratings agency to give "audience size" metrics some legitimacy. Youtube has no incentive to accurately report this data and no apparent accreditation in their methodology.
- kulahan 1y ago
  Google in general have been resistant to letting anyone see how effective their ads truly are - and most studies that get close tend to show extremely questionable efficacy results. If Google shows everyone how ineffective ads actually are, they’d crumble.
  - lurk2 1y ago
    > and most studies Such as?
  - jefftk 1y ago
    This is very much not true: Google has a bunch of options for measuring ad effectiveness, and when I was there (until three years ago) it was very hard to get advertisers to use them. The two main options advertisers have are: * Brand Lift Studies: split audience into treatment and control, use surveys on a small fraction of participants to measure impact * Conversion Lift: again split audience into treatment and control, compare downstream actions like purchases ("conversions") These both work on YouTube IIRC.
    - kulahan 1y ago
      I am not surprised google has many tools to tell you how great google is doing at using google's data for you. Anyways, I was mostly referring to sales at physical locations; I assume it's pretty viable to build a system to figure out if someone who previously bought a lot of shein is now buying a lot of temu.
      - jefftk 1y ago

by pilaf 1y ago

tehwebguy 1y ago

The automated “Skip Ahead” button (which I use daily) is already hostile to sponsorships. I would not be at all surprised to see them hitting sponsors on multiple fronts.

johanyc 1y ago
> The automated “Skip Ahead” button (which I use daily) is already hostile to sponsorships Is it? If I proactively click skip, that means that sponsor is offering something of no use to me. As the sponsor, they successfully make an impression for a second or two anyway. And as a viewer that skip ahead button is much better than pressing right arrow button multiple times
- everforward 1y ago
  The brand recognition is worth something. I haven't been in the market for new headphones in a long time, but I still know the name Raycon from the bajillion sponsorships they do. Likewise with NordVPN and Raid: Shadowlegends. Never used any of them, don't really intend to, but I do know the name.
- recursive 1y ago
  There's a shift in tone of voice or ham-fisted segue that gives it away before they even name the sponsor. I can usually click the button before they even name the sponsor.
  - k12sosse 1y ago
    The best creators build these ad reads wearing different clothes.
a2tech 1y ago
Google is not getting a cut of that sponsorship money. They don't care if it wrecks your deal. They want your ONLY source of income to be Youtube. If you're fully beholden to Youtube, there will be no escape, no way for you to leave and take your viewership with you. Remember how Youtube used to be a nice cage with lots of air holes and fun toys to occupy you? Light ad enforcement, tools to help you build your viewership etc? People are starting to feel the pinch of those being removed. That cool room is starting to look like what it really is--an industrial cage.
- Andrex 1y ago
  I think it's less ominous than that. Skip Ahead is only for Premium subscribers. The logic probably being native-ads/sponsorships are in fact ads, and Premium users are paying for an ad-free experience.
- PeterisP 1y ago
  It's interesting that I just read an inteview with YouTube CEO (https://stratechery.com/2025/an-interview-with-youtube-ceo-neal-mohan-about-building-a-stage-for-creators/ https://stratechery.com/2025/an-interview-with-youtube-ceo-n...) who mentioned that YouTube fully intends to start getting a cut out of that sponsorship money ("to align interests better").
- eastbound 1y ago
  > They want your ONLY source of income to be Youtube. I’m not sure. They want influencers to make profit using their platform, so they want to make them rich. On the viewcount, a skipped sponsor still looks like a view. No sponsor is going to look at the proportion of watching each part of the video, they just care about the view counter. What Youtube may want, though, is for paying customers to be able to skip ads. “If you pay you should have no ads”.
  - kelnos 1y ago
    > What Youtube may want, though, is for paying customers to be able to skip ads. “If you pay you should have no ads”. It feels rare that I agree with Google on anything these days, but if that is the case... sounds fair.
nonameiguess 1y ago
Skipping sponsored segments is not necessarily a reflection of hostility. My wife has been subscribed to the Factor meal service for over three years, yet all of my favorite podcasts are constantly hawking it, and I don't particularly feel like sitting through 20 sales pitches a day for something I already purchased. There is unfortunately no way to communicate that information to either the channel owner or the sponsor.
- stevage 1y ago
  I'm always just amazed how damn long they can be. On some channels I watch they are 2 to 3 minutes long every video. It would be madness to sit through that.
downrightmike 1y ago
in video you can just hit a number to go to the next chunk 1,2,3,4,5 etc. just hit 8 or 9 if you want to see if there is anything of value in a 10 minute video that should have been 30 seconds, but youtube wants 10 minutes
- k12sosse 1y ago
  It's actually [0-9] percentage of the video length times 9, more or less
nozzlegear 1y ago
Truly one of the best updates they've made to the YouTube app on Apple TV (and presumably other tv operating systems) of all time. Just one tap of the remote and we can skip all of the "sponsored by Made In" nonsense. Edit: I guess this is a YouTube premium feature?

secondcoming 1y ago

Surely YT know if a video has sponsored content and so can refuse to play the video - or even not suggest it - if the user is using adblockers?

SilverbeardUnix 1y ago
YT would start a revolt among Youtubers if they did this.

themafia 1y ago

It's wild to me that advertisers are willing to use first party metrics. In any other media business you'd have a certified third party ratings agency to give "audience size" metrics some legitimacy. Youtube has no incentive to accurately report this data and no apparent accreditation in their methodology.

kulahan 1y ago
Google in general have been resistant to letting anyone see how effective their ads truly are - and most studies that get close tend to show extremely questionable efficacy results. If Google shows everyone how ineffective ads actually are, they’d crumble.
- lurk2 1y ago
  > and most studies Such as?
- jefftk 1y ago
  This is very much not true: Google has a bunch of options for measuring ad effectiveness, and when I was there (until three years ago) it was very hard to get advertisers to use them. The two main options advertisers have are: * Brand Lift Studies: split audience into treatment and control, use surveys on a small fraction of participants to measure impact * Conversion Lift: again split audience into treatment and control, compare downstream actions like purchases ("conversions") These both work on YouTube IIRC.
  - kulahan 1y ago
    I am not surprised google has many tools to tell you how great google is doing at using google's data for you. Anyways, I was mostly referring to sales at physical locations; I assume it's pretty viable to build a system to figure out if someone who previously bought a lot of shein is now buying a lot of temu.
    - jefftk 1y ago