YouTube has announced that beginning February 1st, creators will be able to generate ad revenue from their ‘Shorts’ content, fulfilling a promise made in September last year to launch this monetization option.
Because Shorts are popular among Pakistani YouTubers, this update should help local creators earn more money on the platform. It will also help the website attract more content creators.
This change is part of a larger update to YouTube’s Partner Program, which now requires all YouTube partners to sign new agreement terms regardless of whether they want to monetize their Shorts.
Previously, creators could only earn money from Shorts through features like Super Chats and shopping integrations, as well as a creator fund established by the platform.
However, this model was not as beneficial as TikTok’s monetization scheme, which directly shares ad revenue with creators, as YouTube has done for traditional videos for years. It is finally expanding to include Shorts.
If creators prefer, they can choose not to monetize their Shorts content.
What has changed?
YouTube is introducing a modular system for the Partner Program’s terms, in which all participants must sign a base agreement outlining what content can be posted on the site and how payments work. This only applies to content creators who are already affiliated with YouTube.
The company has set a July 10, 2023 deadline for partners to accept the new terms, or else monetization will be turned off and they will have to reapply to the programme.
For “Watch Page” and Shorts monetization, an additional agreement is required, which partners must agree to separately.
The Shorts agreement, which goes into effect on February 1st, allows content creators to receive a portion of the revenue generated by ads seen between videos in the Shorts Feed.
Meanwhile, the Watch Page agreement includes live streams and traditional “long-form” videos on YouTube, YouTube Music, or YouTube Kids.
There’s also an addendum for “commerce products” like memberships, Super Chats, Super Stickers, and Super Thanks, but YouTube says creators won’t have to agree to these terms again if they’ve already enabled these features for their channel.
YouTube can introduce new monetization opportunities in the future using this modular approach without having to update or change the entire monetization agreement.
Additionally, after signing up for certain monetization modules, creators can choose to opt out of them.
New Eligibility Criteria
The Shorts monetization announcement comes as YouTube is revising the requirements for joining the YouTube Partner Program.
Previously, having 4,000 public watch hours on your content in the previous 12 months was one of the requirements. Shorts were included in that requirement beginning in October 2022.
According to a recent update on YouTube’s Partner Program overview and eligibility support page, that is no longer the case as of January 2023.
The eligibility requirement has now been changed to require either 4,000 hours of non-Shorts content or 10 million views on public Shorts in the last 90 days. In both cases, however, creators must have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers to be eligible.
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