Seems almost incredible that no one is pointing out the YT incentives behind this. YT has a war on two fronts: ad-blockers and in-video sponsors. That is because in-video sponsors don't get YT money, so they want to be in the monetization loop. So, by decreasing the views, sponsors are now less attracted to in-video sponsorships and YT ads look better in comparison.

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fishbacon 4 days ago | parent [-]

This is completely unspoken by most of the youtube channels that are making videos about this. The reason they are worried is not because of the algorithm or vanity. Especially for channels like LTT it is economical. They get the vast majority of their money from getting a lot of views.

The interesting thing here is that since youtube did not change anything, it is actually adblockers successfully making sponsored content less viable. Something youtube has been trying to, at least on premium ([ytp]), where I get a little "Jump ahead" button on all platforms when sponcon is detected (in aggregate people skipping forward, it also does it for intros and similar).

I wonder if it will have a measurable impact on placement in the algorithm for channels like RLM that are seeing the drop. But rely on crowdfunding and youtube ads.

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gempir 4 days ago | parent [-]

With the risk of sounding like a fanboy.

LTT makes 9.2% of their revenue on In-Video Sponsors and 12.5% on Sponsored Projects (which are like full videos for a sponsor)

I wouldn't call this the vast majority

https://youtu.be/GeCP-0nuziE?si=2ob1AixcwGZwR4VC&t=719

	▲	callamdelaney 4 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		A huge % of that overall revenue figure is their e-commerce business which will be relatively low margin. They are making roughly double in sponsored videos and sponsored projects than with adsense. It makese sense that some of that sponsor revenue is tied to youtube viewcounts.
	▲	fishbacon 4 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		If sponsored projects and in-video sponsor spots dried up because of low view count I feel like a +20% loss would be something they would feel on their bottomline? I suspect their business still requires that revenue. But my example could be better. Take any moderately sized youtube channel which has a sponsorship in each video. Maybe one of the gaming channels that figured this out? If they lose the sponsorships it would probably not be great for them.