YouTube makes it harder for creators to monetize videos
YouTube has recently announced changes to its monetization program in order to regain advertiser’s trust. The company is tightening the rules around its partner program as well as raising the requirements that a creator will have to meet for monetizing videos.
New channels will now need to have 1,000 subscribers as well as 4,000 hours of viewing time within the past 12 months in order to qualify for ads, also known as the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). YouTube will be enforcing the new eligibility policy for all existing channels as of February 20th. Earlier, channels needed only 10,000 views in order to be eligible for the program.
Although this change will make it difficult for new, smaller channels to reach monetization, YouTube says it is an important way of buying itself more time to see who is following the company’s guidelines & disqualify “bad actors.”
This new, stricter policy basically came after Logan Paul, one of YouTube’s star creators & influencers, published a scandalous video on Japan’s “Suicide Forest”. Last week, YouTube removed Paul from their Google Preferred ad program as well as put projects with him on hold.
“We’ve arrived at these new thresholds after thorough analysis and conversations with creators like you,” the company announced in a blog post. “They will allow us to significantly improve our ability to identify creators who contribute positively to the community and help drive more ad revenue to them (and away from bad actors).” Though it doesn’t mention him by name, YouTube seems to reference the recent, high-profile Logan Paul incident by saying “These higher standards will also help us prevent potentially inappropriate videos from monetizing which can hurt revenue for everyone.”
However this is not a new problem. Since years advertisers have been complaining about unexpectedly appearing alongside inappropriate videos on YouTube’s platform and the company has repeatedly promised changes for rectifying the issue & has already implemented some. This new monetization structure is undoubtedly one of the more aggressive steps it has taken so far.
Also YouTube promised to increase the human vetting of videos that’re featured as part of Google Preferred. In future, advertisers who participate in Google Preferred ad program will not have to worry about something like the Logan Paul controversy, because their advertisements will only run alongside videos that have been verified as compliant with guidelines by an actual person.
