YouTube has mandated that henceforth any channel that does not have a total of 10,000 views or more will not be served ads.
According to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report, the major shift in policy is designed to punish rule breakers.
This move comes amid the backlash from advertisers over the placement of ads on racist and objectionable videos. This prompted a number of companies to suspend their digital ads on the video streaming service.
However, Ariel Bardin, YouTube VP of Product Management, said in a blog post that this move is to protect creator revenue. According to him, YouTube has started seeing cases of abuse where great, original content is re-uploaded by others who try to earn revenue from it. So upating the threshold required to join the YouTube Partner Program, (10,000 views) is a step to protect creators.
“This new threshold gives us enough information to determine the validity of a channel. It also allows us to confirm if a channel is following our community guidelines and advertiser policies.”
“By keeping the threshold to 10k views, we also ensure that there will be minimal impact on our aspiring creators. And, of course, any revenue earned on channels with under 10k views up until today will not be impacted.”
He also said that in a few weeks, YouTube will also be adding a review process for new creators who apply to be in the YouTube Partner Program. After a creator hits 10k lifetime views on their channel, YouTube will review their activity against its policies. If everything looks good, it will bring this channel into YPP and begin serving ads against their content. Together these new thresholds will help ensure revenue only flows to creators who are playing by the rules.
Previously there was no limit. YouTube placed ads on any account and there were really no barrier to getting approval.
