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The anger in the comments of this post by YouTube clearly shows how unpopular this change is regarding minimum number of subscribers required going forward. Another move by YouTube to become less user friendly and probably its all about cost cutting. I need to ensure that my YouTube channel is well over the 1,000 subscriber limit by 28th Feb 2018. Please subscribe. Thank you.
2017 marked a tough year for many of you, with several issues affecting our community and the revenue earned from advertising through the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). Despite those issues more creators than ever are earning a living on YouTube, with the number of channels making over six figures up over 40% year-over-year. In 2018, a major focus for everyone at YouTube is protecting our creator ecosystem and ensuring your revenue is more stable.
As Susan mentioned in December, we’re making changes to address the issues that affected our community in 2017 so we can prevent bad actors from harming the inspiring and original creators around the world who make their living on YouTube. A big part of that effort will be strengthening our requirements for monetization so spammers, impersonators, and other bad actors can’t hurt our ecosystem or take advantage of you, while continuing to reward those who make our platform great.
Back in April of 2017, we set a YPP eligibility requirement of 10,000 lifetime views. While that threshold provided more information to determine whether a channel followed our community guidelines and policies, it’s been clear over the last few months that we need a higher standard.
Starting today we’re changing the eligibility requirement for monetization to 4,000 hours of watchtime within the past 12 months and 1,000 subscribers. We’ve arrived at these new thresholds after thorough analysis and conversations with creators like you. They will allow us to significantly improve our ability to identify creators who contribute positively to the community and help drive more ad revenue to them (and away from bad actors). These higher standards will also help us prevent potentially inappropriate videos from monetizing which can hurt revenue for everyone.
On February 20th, 2018, we’ll also implement this threshold across existing channels on the platform, to allow for a 30 day grace period. On that date, channels with fewer than 1,000 subs or 4,000 watch hours will no longer be able to earn money on YouTube. When they reach 1,000 subs and 4,000 watch hours they will be automatically re-evaluated under strict criteria to ensure they comply with our policies. New channels will need to apply, and their application will be evaluated when they hit these milestones.
Though these changes will affect a significant number of channels, 99% of those affected were making less than $100 per year in the last year, with 90% earning less than $2.50 in the last month. Any of the channels who no longer meet this threshold will be paid what they’ve already earned based on our AdSense policies. After thoughtful consideration, we believe these are necessary compromises to protect our community.
Of course, size alone is not enough to determine whether a channel is suitable for monetization, so we’ll continue to use signals like community strikes, spam, and other abuse flags to ensure we’re protecting our creator community from bad actors. As we continue to protect our platform from abuse, we want to remind all of you to follow YouTube’s Community Guidelines, Monetization Basics & Policies, Terms of Service, and Google AdSense program policies, as violating any of these may lead to removal from the YouTube Partner Program.
Gavin's Gadgets & Photography 
I got the email this morning to say I was losing monetization, My Channel has had 22, 000 hours viewed this past year. I have 2886 subscribers but I guess much less than 1000 subscribers were added recently, I was earning between £120-180 a year on average so not a huge loss but having been with youtube since 2006 its quite sad they are moving in this direction. Youtube is heading towards being an ad-supported netflix style TV channel kind of miss the old youtube with its diverse community where anyone with a webcam or phone could make a video,
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It is very sad. I think you’ll be ok as you have the correct amount of minimum requirements. I understood it meant 4,000 hours in last 12 months. And 1,000 subscribers in total (not last 12 months).
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There’s no way I’m going to hit 4k watch hours or 1k subscribers before next month. I’m definitely going to get de-monitized if YouTube goes through with this. It does not affect me hugely, but I am fearful that many of my favourite YouTubers will vanish.
I’ll be interested to see if YouTube pay-out the £45 revenue they owe me already, or whether the £60 threshold will prevail (in which case, the £45 ad revenue I’ve accumulated from YouTube is worthless and I have no other means of adding to the balance to trigger a payout). Lots of conflicting information about this – some saying we get paid as its a contractual change, others saying YouTube will stick by the AdSense rules and make no special exceptions.
A real kick-in-the-teeth for smaller creators. It goes completely against the ethos of Google’s motto of “don’t be evil”. It’s not so much the money factor, but the sense that smaller creators are completely worthless to YouTube. But I would argue the point that smaller creators create some of the best content.
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It’s terrible and I don’t see YouTube changing their minds. Let me have your channel URL. I’m going to do a post soon promoting smaller channels that need help.
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I emailed YouTube and they have replied to tell me that if my AdSense balance does not exceed £60, then I will NOT receive a payout; in line with the current AdSense rules. So it seems the £45 I’ve made since 2006 is lost revenue I’m never going to see. My video’s are typically short and specialised (things like RapidWeaver web development tutorials or Dartmoor cycle rides), so I’m never going to get beyond the monetisation threshold. Therefore the small incentive to keep publishing content to YouTube has dried-up for me. I did have plans to expand on the amount of video content I did for YouTube in 2018, but I don’t like the direction they are going in.
This was my channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8iM8Zo_7iSIrc3mqXxyWjg
I am also angry that YouTube have penalised some good creators and de-monitorised certain video’s at random, without giving reason. I know Cody of the ‘Wranglestar’ channel had a whole bunch of homesteading video’s stripped of ad revenue last year. One of my web design clients had their entire channel taken down in September, because of a single complaint from a person that disagreed with some homeopathy content they had uploaded for education. A friend who used to do something called ‘ASMR’ was forced to delete her channel, because of the torrent of abusive comments and copyright infringements that YouTube ignored. And I know you have had some review video’s de-monitised too, which I felt was totally unjustified – given how good they were.
It doesn’t seem fair in my eyes. I am seriously considering cutting all ties with Google and putting my content on DailyMotion or Vimeo instead. I can’t expect to get any more revenue there, but at least I can be assured my content won’t get demoted or deleted. It is sad YouTube has become like this – a numbers game instead of focusing on quality.
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It’s totally unfair what is happening and to think you won’t get your ad revenue is an insult.
I have had nearly every new video demonetised. Each time I have had to challenge the decision. I do get the decision overturned eventually, but in the meantime I’ve lost the lion share of ad revenue.
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Will, just heard from someone in the know, you will get your £45 but less a $10 dollar cancellation fee. Not sure what that becomes in UK money.
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