Starting from February 1, creators of YouTube's Shorts – short vertical videos of up to 60 seconds – will be able to take part in an updated partner program and monetize their content as the tech giant will start sharing ad money with them.
As part of a major update to YouTube's Partner Program, participants will have to accept the base terms, regardless of whether they plan to make money from their Shorts videos. It is important to note that they have until July 10th, 2023, to accept the new terms, or else their participation in the partner program will be suspended and they will have to reapply.
Previously, user-generated videos had to accumulate at least 4,000 hours of views over the past 12 months to be eligible for a program. Now, users will need to accumulate 4,000 hours of views on standard video clips or 10 million views on Shorts within the past 90 days to qualify for the program. They also need to have at least 1,000 subscribers.
Bradley Rhodes
The platform's updated partner program will become modular, which will give content creators more opportunities to monetize their content. All program participants will be required to sign a basic agreement that outlines the posting guidelines and payment procedures.
Apart from the basic agreement, there are also separate agreements for monetizing through "Watch Page" and Shorts. The Shorts agreement, available from February 1st, offers a revenue share from "ads viewed between videos in the Shorts Feed."
The Watch Page agreement covers other content such as live streams and traditional long-form videos on YouTube, YouTube Music, or YouTube Kids.
The final module, known as the "Commerce Product Addendum," pertains to features such as Channel Memberships and Supers. Non-original Shorts are not eligible for revenue sharing.
Bradley Rhodes
You can learn more about the ad revenue share program of YouTube's Shorts here and here.