YouTube is set to start rolling out its revenue sharing program for adverts viewed in between videos on its Shorts feed.
The new revenue sharing plan, which will be available to creators who meet the eligibility criteria, will replace the existing YouTube Shorts Fund. However, YouTube said that it expects most creators to earn more money with the new revenue sharing model than from the Shorts Fund.
In order to start earning money from the revenue sharing scheme, creators will have to be signed up to the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). Creators need to have gained1,000 subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days to be eligible for Shorts revenue sharing.
However, creators can still qualify for YPP with 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 public watch hours in the last 12 months on regular YouTube videos. But, any watch hours from Shorts views don’t count towards that threshold.
This change in payment model means that creators will have to adhere to YouTube’s existing advertiser guidelines in order to earn money from Shorts. As such, this requires creators to upload only original content and without violence, adult content, inappropriate language, and other typically brand-unsafe content.
In practice, the revenue sharing model will total up the money YouTube makes from adverts in between Shorts videos, send it to a Creator Pool based on views and music usage across Shorts videos.
From there, the money will be distributed pro rata to creators based on the proportion of views they gained among the monetising creators in their country. For example, if a creator accumulated 5 per cent of total Shorts views in Australia, they will receive 5 per cent of the Creator Pool money generated from ad revenue in Australia.
But, here’s the catch, creators will only keep 45 per cent of their allocated revenue. YouTube will keep the remaining 55 per cent.
Another significant catch is that only original videos for YouTube Shorts are eligible for monetisation. This means that creators will not be able to reupload the same content on Shorts as they have on TikTok and Instagram Reels and expect to earn money.
This revenue sharing model gives Shorts a significant boost over its other short-form competitors which have not managed to find an efficient way to reward creators beyond general fund models.
