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by LeifCarrotson 921 days ago
Those advertisers could be interacting directly with Youtube, but these platforms help them skip over the middleman and go right to the creator.
2 comments

In theory yes, but in practice not really. AFAIK Youtube doesn't offer a platform to do direct placements with creators, which make up the bulk of creator earnings (basically every big channel is only profitable via those). That Youtube hasn't built out a platform with tools to enable that, so that they could get a piece of that pie is entirely on them.
I feel like even mid-roll ads are just too different type of advertising medium than a direct video integration so they shouldn't be thought of as alternatives to each other. And it would seem to me that the general vibe is that sponsor spots are more hip and more prestigious for advertisers. I used to see those from new and agile companies whereas any sort of normal in-stream ad type would be preferred by more established and classical companies. I use both uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock these days though so my anecdata might be stale.