14 DAY TRIAL // If you have a YouTube channel that hasn't yet reached 10,000 views, you're fresh out of luck because YouTube will no longer display ads on your videos.
The decision comes after weeks of being boycotted by some 250 brands that said they didn't want their ads placed alongside questionable content such as extremist of hateful videos.
Even though the announcement was just made and it kind of fits perfectly with all the other steps YouTube plans to take to avoid situations like the one that led to boycotts, the company told The Wall Street Journal that the measure had been in development since November.
On top of blocking ads from being displayed on channels that have fewer than 10,000 views total, across all their videos, Youtube also plans to block channels which steal content from other sources from getting any revenue from the platform. That means that if you copy off a segment of, let's say, John Oliver's show and post it with a funny comment, you won't see any ads on the video or any money from YouTube, no matter how many views you rack up.
A big change
Up until now, it was pretty easy to get money from YouTube, although the payoff varied greatly from country to country. All you had to do was have an account and apply to run ads next to your videos. There was very little standing in the way of all channels getting approved.
YouTube's system works automatically, so ads were placed against content by using algorithmic methods. This is what led to ads from reputable brands being displayed against racist videos or other objectionable content.
Google has already announced several other changes to the way it distributed ads on its platforms. One of the solutions the company said it would deploy was machine learning, which will help identify objectionable content.