YouTube to start sharing ad money with Shorts creators soon

YouTube has announced that creators can start generating ad revenue on Shorts starting February 1, following a promise in September that the monetization option was on the way. The change comes as part of a broader update to the YouTube Partner Program, which will require everyone currently a part of it to sign new terms of the agreement, whether or not they're planning to make money from Shorts.

Creators can make some money off the format launched in 2021 for a while through Super Chats and shopping integrations, as well as a creator fund the company had set up, but that model wasn't all that better than the previous one. TikTok monetization scheme. However, what TikTok doesn't do is directly share ad revenue with creators, something YouTube has been doing for years for traditional videos and is now bringing to Shorts.

Creators won't necessarily have to opt into monetising shorts if they don't want to. YouTube says it's starting a modular system for the partner program's terms: everyone in the program will need to sign a base agreement that dictates things like what you can share on the site and how payment works. That goes for creators who are already YouTube partners; the tech company says they will have until July 10, 2023, to agree to the new terms, or their ability to monetize with the platform will be disabled, and they will have to reapply to the program.

Then there are additional agreements for "Page View" monetization and Shorts, which you can agree to separately. The Shorts deal, which will be available on February 1, is basically what it says on the tin, giving you a share of the revenue from "ads seen between videos in the Shorts Feed." The Watch Page agreement essentially covers the other things; live streams and traditional "long-form" videos on YouTube, YouTube Music, or YouTube Kids.

The announcement comes as YouTube is reviewing the requirements to join the YouTube Partner Program. One of the needs used to be that you had to get 4,000 hours of the public view of your content in the last 12 months. As of October 2022, shorts count toward that number. However, as of January 2023, that is no longer the case, as per the YouTube Partner Program overview and eligibility support page. Instead, that part of the eligibility requirement has changed; you must get all 4,000 hours in non-short content or get 10 million views on your public shorts in the last 90 days.