YouTube has announced that creators will finally be able to generate ad revenue from their ‘Shorts’ content starting February 1st, as per the promise made in September last year to launch this monetization option.
Since a large number of Pakistani YouTubers focus on Shorts, this update should let local creators earn more on the platform. It will also help attract even more content creators to the website.
This change is part of a broader update to YouTube’s Partner Program, which now requires YouTube partners to sign new agreement terms, whether or not they wish to monetize their Shorts. Previously, creators could only generate revenue from Shorts through features such as Super Chats and shopping integrations, as well as a creator fund set up by the company.
However, this model was not as beneficial as TikTok’s monetization scheme, which directly shares ad revenue with creators, something that YouTube has been doing for years for traditional videos. It is finally extending to Shorts as well.
Creators have the option to opt out of monetizing their Shorts content if they choose to.
What’s New?
YouTube is introducing a modular system for the Partner Program’s terms, where everyone in the program must sign a base agreement that outlines what content can be posted on the site and how payments work. This applies only to content creators who are already partnered with YouTube.
The company has set a deadline of July 10, 2023, for partners to accept the new terms, otherwise, monetization will be turned off and they will have to reapply to the program. An additional agreement is required for “Watch Page” and Shorts monetization, which partners must agree to separately.
The Shorts agreement, which will be available on February 1st, allows content creators to receive a cut of the revenue from ads viewed between videos in the Shorts Feed. Meanwhile, the Watch Page agreement covers other features such as live streams and traditional “long-form” videos on YouTube, YouTube Music, or YouTube Kids.
Additionally, there’s an addendum for “commerce products” such as memberships, Super Chats, Super Stickers, and Super Thanks, but YouTube states that creators won’t have to re-agree to these terms if they’ve already enabled these features for their channel.
With this modular approach, YouTube can introduce new monetization opportunities in the future without having to update or change the entire monetization agreement. Also, creators can choose to opt out of certain monetization modules after signing up for them.
New Eligibility Requirements
The announcement about the monetization of Shorts comes as YouTube is revising the requirements for joining the YouTube Partner Program. Previously, one of the requirements was to have 4,000 public watch hours on your content in the past 12 months. Starting in October 2022, Shorts were included in that requirement.
However, as of January 2023, that is no longer the case, as per the recent update on YouTube’s Partner Program overview and eligibility support page. Now, the eligibility requirement has been modified, where one has to either have 4,000 hours of non-Shorts content or 10 million views on public Shorts within the last 90 days. However, in both cases, creators must have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers to be eligible.
