YouTube war on terror threatens GadgetyNews
I am still reeling from the news I received yesterday morning from YouTube. The email sent out from the video-sharing giant threatens many YouTubers very hard.
YouTube informed tens-of-thousands of smaller channels that they are removing monetisation.
Basically, any channel with less than 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time will be bumped off from receiving any revenue from advertising.
GadgetyNews currently has 216 subscribers and therefore will lose the monetisation. We might not get much but it is crucial to the running of this blog. Furthermore, it enables us to cover shows and press events around the country.
We wish to continue to keep everything free to watch and read, however, YouTube is now making us beg you to hit that subscribe button.
I am not asking for money – in fact I never even pushed people to subscribe to our YouTube channel – but the easiest way to show a little appreciation and support is for you to subscribe.
Win a BlackBerry KEYone! – here are the details!
The reason
I am not totally unaware of why YouTube is doing this, of course. It does have a good reason, although I think they have simply chosen the easiest option for them.
In the simplest terms, this is a sweeping change that YouTube has implemented so that brands won’t be advertising on videos which are created for hate speech, terrorism, and such. These generally have a small amount of subscribers (why subscribe and make it easier for people to track you?) and also small audiences.
Unfortunately, channels such as GadgetyNews and our friends, work hard to create content but also don’t aggressively push our channels. Getting just 1,000 subscribers is hard!
The real kick in the teeth is that YouTube said that, as channels such as ours receive little revenue from our videos, that we won’t miss it when it is pulled from us. It is quite the opposite. Many like me want to avoid plastering our sites with loads of advertising, annoying pop-ups, etc. Furthermore, we definitely want to avoid paywalls and other more ‘businesslike’ methods of getting help with our costs.
YouTube statement
Today we are announcing changes to the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). While our goal remains to keep the YPP open to as many channels as possible, we recognise that we need more safeguards in place to protect creator revenue across the YouTube ecosystem.
Under the new eligibility requirements announced today, your YouTube channel, Jay Garrett, is no longer eligible for monetisation because it does not meet the new threshold of 4,000 hours of watch time within the past 12 months and 1,000 subscribers. As a result, your channel will lose access to all monetisation tools and features associated with the YouTube Partner Program on 20 February 2018 unless you surpass this threshold in the next 30 days. Accordingly, this email serves as 30 days notice that your YouTube Partner Program terms are terminated.
One of YouTube’s core values is to provide anyone the opportunity to earn money from a thriving channel. Creators who haven’t yet reached this new threshold can continue to benefit from our Creator Academy, our Help Centre and all the resources on the Creator Site to grow their channels. Once your channel reaches the new threshold, it will be reviewed to make sure it adheres to our policies and guidelines, and if so, monetisation will be re-enabled.
Please subscribe
You would be doing me a huge favour by subscribing to the GadgetyNews channel on YouTube.
In fact, it means so much to me that, should we break the 1,000 subscriber barrier before February 20th – one lucky subscriber will be sent a fantastic BlackBerry KEYone as seen on YouTube! This is just one of the events I attended and was able to bring you the news before many of the larger channels. #JustSayin 😉
[youtube id=”voKcU9KAS5g”]
