Dan Robinson
EF5
It appears that a major source of video revenue for storm chasers is in jeopardy.
This week, facing pressure from its biggest advertisers, Youtube began dropping monetization from scores of videos citing a new, more stringent advertiser-friendly policy regarding content that receives Adsense revenue. The new policy targets videos that cover controversial or "sensitive" subjects like political discussion, war and natural disasters. The pressure comes after a barrage of mainstream media stories about ads that were found to be playing on videos that contain controversial material. A few major corporations pulled their ad campaigns from the site in response, motivating Youtube to make the policy changes.
I was not aware of this until recently, when one of my popular winter driving videos was de-monetized. Many popular channels have been hit, including some with millions of subscribers. I also received word from a longtime experienced chaser that all of their tornado videos were de-monetized.
Of concern is the following bullet item in the new policy:
Link to the full text of the policy:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6162278?hl=en
Blog post from Google on the subject:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/youtube/09dw40n0iwY
The criteria are sweeping, covering anything that could be deemed "controversial", including political commentary.
The notification I received was apparently an automated bot that I could appeal, which I did.
This could be a significant development in the chasing media world, should this play out across all channels that have weather videos covering tornadoes, floods, winter storms, hurricanes and more.
Update November 2017:
After some experience with the demonetization and appeals process, it appears that most algorithmic demonetizations are triggered by certain words in the video's title, description or tags. These include but are not limited to these and similar words:
severe weather
disaster
destroyed
injured
killed
flooded
deaths
fatalities
accident
wreck
crash
ANY type of political or even slightly controversial subject matter is likely to be demonetized - not a problem for most chaser videos, but worth mentioning. Links to crowdfunding accounts (such as Patreon and GoFundMe) have also been reported as possible demonetization triggers.
Essentially, you need to describe your video the same way you would to an easily-traumatized young child. Sadly that is the new "advertiser friendly" standard that Youtube is enforcing.
If your video is demonetized, make the needed edits to your title, description and tags BEFORE appealing. You only get one appeal per video - if you lose, you don't get another chance.
If you have not yet been hit with demonetization, I would recommend a review of all of your video metadata (titles, tags and descriptions) as a proactive measure. Youtube's demonetization bot is slowly making its rounds across their system, and will eventually scan all of your videos.
This week, facing pressure from its biggest advertisers, Youtube began dropping monetization from scores of videos citing a new, more stringent advertiser-friendly policy regarding content that receives Adsense revenue. The new policy targets videos that cover controversial or "sensitive" subjects like political discussion, war and natural disasters. The pressure comes after a barrage of mainstream media stories about ads that were found to be playing on videos that contain controversial material. A few major corporations pulled their ad campaigns from the site in response, motivating Youtube to make the policy changes.
I was not aware of this until recently, when one of my popular winter driving videos was de-monetized. Many popular channels have been hit, including some with millions of subscribers. I also received word from a longtime experienced chaser that all of their tornado videos were de-monetized.
Of concern is the following bullet item in the new policy:
Link to the full text of the policy:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6162278?hl=en
Blog post from Google on the subject:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/youtube/09dw40n0iwY
The criteria are sweeping, covering anything that could be deemed "controversial", including political commentary.
The notification I received was apparently an automated bot that I could appeal, which I did.
This could be a significant development in the chasing media world, should this play out across all channels that have weather videos covering tornadoes, floods, winter storms, hurricanes and more.
Update November 2017:
After some experience with the demonetization and appeals process, it appears that most algorithmic demonetizations are triggered by certain words in the video's title, description or tags. These include but are not limited to these and similar words:
severe weather
disaster
destroyed
injured
killed
flooded
deaths
fatalities
accident
wreck
crash
ANY type of political or even slightly controversial subject matter is likely to be demonetized - not a problem for most chaser videos, but worth mentioning. Links to crowdfunding accounts (such as Patreon and GoFundMe) have also been reported as possible demonetization triggers.
Essentially, you need to describe your video the same way you would to an easily-traumatized young child. Sadly that is the new "advertiser friendly" standard that Youtube is enforcing.
If your video is demonetized, make the needed edits to your title, description and tags BEFORE appealing. You only get one appeal per video - if you lose, you don't get another chance.
If you have not yet been hit with demonetization, I would recommend a review of all of your video metadata (titles, tags and descriptions) as a proactive measure. Youtube's demonetization bot is slowly making its rounds across their system, and will eventually scan all of your videos.
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