[carlosjobim]

> The sponsors are not paying directly for viewings

And in that case you are not contributing by watching the ads. There's also a ton of sponsorship where the creator has a referral code that the viewer uses to purchase a product. In these cases they make money if you buy the product.

If you're not going to buy anything, you are not helping the creator at all by watching any ads. Your are better off just blocking the ads to not waste your time.

[dspillett]

They are effectively paying for viewings, they are just not directly paying for viewings. How do you know you will never be interested in something if you are never told things exist?

Of course, if you are so anti-advert that you can't accept the slightest possibility that a sponsor segment relevant to the clip you are consuming can't ever possibly be of interest to you, or you'd avoid it even if it would otherwise interest you simply because you were informed about it by a sponsor segment, then yes, automatically skipping won't make any difference. But I consider that thought process to be somewhat blinkered, perhaps even reductio ad absurdum.

[carlosjobim]

I think life is too short to waste any time watching ads, with the absolutely minuscule chance that something relevant will be presented. My time is much more valuable than that, so I have nothing against paying for the content.

[dspillett]

> so I have nothing against paying for the content

In theory nor do I, as long as paying gets rid of the tracking as well as the adverts which I'm sure it won't, so for now I'll keep blocking the stalking (and adverts while they are intimately linked) and accepting sponsor segments.

[carlosjobim]

It is pretty obvious that if creators get paid based on the time people spend watching their videos, then that has to be tracked.