YouTube is now allowed to show ads on all videos without paying creators

YouTube can now show advertisements on every video, even if the maker has decided to turn off advertisements there. The company has adjusted the general terms and conditions for this. Creators don’t get money for those ads.

This is an adjustment of YouTube’s general terms and conditions, which are now active in the US. Before the end of next year, these rules will become active for all countries. The amended terms and conditions include a new section on the ‘right to earn money’. YouTube thus appropriates the right that it can earn money from any channel.

The rules apply to videos from creators who are not in the YouTube Partner Program. Creators come into that YPP if they have more than a thousand subscribers who watch videos for a minimum number of hours per month. Creators in that program can make money from YouTube ads, but not outside of it. Nevertheless, videos from users with less than a thousand subscribers will still be advertised according to the new rules.

Moreover, such small channels do not receive any money for those advertisements. “Since you are not a member of the YouTube Partner Program, you are not entitled to any revenue from these ads,” Google writes in the new rules. In principle, nothing will change for creators who are in the YouTube Partner Program.