As I know they transcode every uploaded video to their preferred format. They could use the same infrastructure for the ads. But maybe it's really too expensive.

Yes for example if you return always the same segment when skipping.

Ah ok I didn't know the EU thing. For the algorithm it's a cat and mouse game. You could try to detect it by hash signatures of the segments or some kind of image detection but they could in turn add bytes to change the signature or other attributes. Could require a lot of effort on the blocking site to have the indicators up to date.

That wouldn't make sense in the case of hls since the stream consists of multiple fragments of a video and you would just insert the ad fragments. This would only require changing the index file which could be done again and again with no effort and needs no reencoding of the video file.

hating the USA = red fascism. Please go on and explain this to the global south.

Dear US Americans,

please vote for anything that speeds up the downfall of your country.

Sincerely everyone outside of the USA.

How do you motivate people to reach for more, he asks, on a platform that is literally developed for free. Have you ever thought that people do certain things because they like them ? I see not every job is likable tho. But that's a different problem, we can try to solve by technology. I know my opinion is also biased but in the end we should try to a bit more open minded.