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Comment by sbarre | Hacker News Reader

I mean, the stuff that's in the video is not really under Google's control.

Are you suggesting that the burden should be on channel owners to upload variations of their videos that don't include sponsor blocks? That's a bit onerous. My commercial agreement is with YouTube, not with the video creator.

If you don't like ads from creators, don't watch those channels?

YT Premium does provide the "skip ahead" functionality that almost always jumps over sponsor blocks.

I will say I've been a YT Premium subscriber for years and I've never seen any ads for other Google services in my feed, and I don't get advert emails either.

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> I mean, the stuff that's in the video is not really under Google's control.

It is completely within Google's control. They have a hundred pages of terms of services, dictating everything the content creators may and may not do and say, down to individual words, symbols, and opinions. If Google wanted to, they could tell content creators to stop adding sponsorships. I understand you'd make less money.

> If you don't like ads from creators, don't watch those channels?

I stopped paying YouTube and I use SponsorBlock now. You're not entitled to my time or attention or money.

The problem is ultimately that Google advertises an ad free experience, which it's not. I'd be willing to pay for an ad free experience.

> You're not entitled to my time or attention or money.

Ahhh but you're entitled to someone else's hard work in producing the content you watch, and god forbid they'd be entitled to compensation for that work.. Got it..

Rules for me, not for thee..

You're free to put your content behind a paywall. YouTube makes this very easy.

If google can't provide an ad-free product, they shouldn't be selling an ad-free product.

> Are you suggesting that the burden should be on channel owners to upload variations of their videos that don't include sponsor blocks?

No, just mark the sponsored segments, so YouTube can skip over (like SponsorBlock does). And they already pay more per view from Premium users vs ad-supported ones, so it just makes sense to skip ads in the video as well.

That being said, I think paying creators directly is more sustainable in the long term.

All creators that are on Nebula already upload sponsor-free versions there.

Nebula is mostly irrelevant. Even Nebulas creators wouldn't survive without youtube revenue.

Maybe so, the point is there is a non-zero number of creators who already do sbarre thinks is too onerous.

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