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.

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nonameiguess 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

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 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		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.

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a2tech 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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.

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Andrex 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

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.

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PeterisP 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's interesting that I just read an inteview with YouTube CEO (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").

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eastbound 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> 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 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		> 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.

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Workaccount2 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

YouTube doesn't have to defend itself. Read this thread and understand how shitty/entitled it's users are.

Then these adult children go an complain there are no competitors. No shit, you scoff at subscriptions and wear your ad-block like a badge of honor. Who the hell would invest in making a platform for non-paying users?

	▲	godshatter 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Strangely enough, I do feel entitled to download data from YouTube using standard protocols on a standard port. It's not like I'm breaking in or anything.

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johanyc 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> 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

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recursive 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

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 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		The best creators build these ad reads wearing different clothes.

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everforward 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

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.

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nozzlegear 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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?

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downrightmike 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

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 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		It's actually [0-9] percentage of the video length times 9, more or less