YouTube makes it harder for smaller channels to monetize their videos

Youtube is increasing the requirements for channels on its platform that will make them eligible to earn money from ads run before and during their videos.

In April 2017, it began requiring channels to have a minimum of 10,000-lifetime views to qualify for its monetization program; it’s now upped that to a threshold of 4,000 hours of watch time within the past 12 months, and 1,000 subscribers. The company explained its revamped criteria in a blog post.

I guess this is a bad news for smaller channels who may not command a large audience but still play by YouTube’s rules and earn through their videos.

For your attention, all the new channels are subject to the policy immediately, and current channels have until February 20 to reach the criteria.

The changes will affect all new channels starting today and existing channels on February 20, 2018. If channels don’t satisfy the criteria, they will be removed from the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). YouTube’s blog post serves as a 30-day warning to all channels that are close to the threshold. 

In response, smaller channels are using the comments section of the blog post to advertise their channels. Many creators are offering “sub for sub”, where they’ll subscribe to any channel that does the same for them.

According to Youtube, these restrictions are useful for preventing bad actors from harming content creators.

What do you think about YouTube’s new policy? Will it hurt the growth of small channels? Let us know in the Comment section below.