In a major change to its monetization policy, YouTube on Wednesday announced that it will start running advertisements on more videos on the platform, irrespective of whether the uploader is part of its Partner Program or not. What it means is that the company is essentially giving itself the right to monetize a creator’s content without sharing any revenues with them.
Announcing the change in policy through an update to its Terms of Service, the company said: “… starting today we’ll begin slowly rolling out ads on a limited number of videos from channels not in YPP. This means as a creator that’s not in YPP, you may see ads on some of your videos. Since you’re not currently in YPP, you won’t receive a share of the revenue from these ads”.
The new policies are rolling out in the US with immediate effect, and will be effective across all regions around the country by the end of the year. According to the company, it will henceforth treat all payments to US-based creators as royalties, but for creators from overseas, the company says it will provide more information next year.
As is to be expected, the change has not been received well by the YouTube community and the global tech media at large, with Gizmodo describing it as “a naked cash grab”. On social media, many are calling for YouTube to withdraw the changes, with some podcasters and political commentators, like Cody Johnston of Some More News, terming the new policy ‘disgusting’ and ’embarrassing’.
