You...don't believe it works like that? Ultimately a sponsor isn't going to pay much if no one watches the spot. Advertising has always involved getting as much data as possible on how your ads are doing.
I don't have any one definitive link that will tell you "this is how it works", but I've picked up a few things from the various discussions I've seen some youtubers have.
Actually that's not quite how it works from my understanding. Youtube is able to provide detailed metrics that can provide information like "how many people actually watched the sponsor segment?" and base the payouts on that. The payout will either be based on estimated views in advance (meaning if it's lower than expected they'll pay less next time) or they'll pay after the video has been live for some period of time.
You're right! There's nothing wrong with efficiency and teaching people to be less wasteful, however I believe including it in your argument for renewables means muddying the message.
Talking about getting production to 100% renewable puts the onus on governments and power companies to change.
Talking about efficiency is about getting consumers to use less, and allows energy producers and politicians to point the finger at people leaving their lights on unnecessarily rather than getting on with the job of making more renewable energy.
This is of course speculation on my part
Youtube tracks how much of a video each person watches. These metrics are used by youtubers to strike deals with sponsors.
The amount of money the sponsor pays will be based on how many views the sponsor's message part of the video gets.
Actually, with clean sources of electricity like wind and solar, the amount consumption doesn't matter. It only matters if there isn't enough for everyone, or the power comes from non-green sources (coal etc)
Traditionally, we the players paid for the servers. If it was a server browser game like counter strike, the various clans would pay for their own servers. Companies that sold gaming servers would also host some as an advertisement of how good their servers were