YouTube nixes monetization until channels hit 10,000 views
Video giant says move is an effort to crack down on impersonating channels
A decade ago, YouTube was focused on bringing down the barriers to entry with its YouTube Partner Program, opening the doors for content creators to earn money from their efforts on the site. It seems YouTube is trying to build those barriers back up a bit, as today the company announced on its Creators Blog that it would no longer serve ads on channels with fewer than 10,000 total views across all their videos.
The move was positioned as an attempt to crack down on channel impersonators, people who take existing content on the site and re-upload it to their own look-alike channels.
"This new threshold gives us enough information to determine the validity of a channel," VP of product management Ariel Bardin explained. "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."
The company said it recently made a change to make it easier for people to report impersonator channels, and that tweak "has helped us terminate hundreds of thousands of channels violating our policies." Going forward, YouTube will also add a review process for people who apply to be in the YouTube Partner program.
Refusing to serve ads on new channels may also help YouTube with another of its recent problems, that of brands pulling advertising from the site after reports spread about how YouTube frequently runs ads for mainstream brands alongside racist video content. YouTube parent Google has since pledged to improve its practices for the sake of its advertising brands.