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YouTube relaxes controversial profanity and monetization rules following creator backlash

YouTube announced today that it’s relaxing the controversial profanity rules that it introduced toward the end of last year. The company says the new rules ended up creating a “stricter approach” than it had intended. The new update to the policy allows creators to use moderate and strong profanity without risking demonetization.
The original policy that was introduced back in November would flag any video that used profanity in the first 15 seconds of the video and make it ineligible for monetization, which meant that YouTube wouldn’t run ads on such videos. The change was retroactive and some creators said they had lost their monetization status as a result.
YouTube said back in January that it planned to modify the new rules.
Although the new relaxed rules don’t revert these changes back to the platform’s old policy, YouTube is making some changes that will allow creators to be eligible for limited ads if they use strong profanity within the first few seconds of a video. Under the November update, such videos would have received no ad revenue. The company also notes that video content using profanity, moderate or strong, after the first 7 seconds will be eligible for monetization, unless used repetitively throughout the majority of the video. Once again, such videos would have received no ad revenue under the November update.
YouTube said that it will re-review videos from creators who had their monetization affected by the November policy.
The company also clarified how profanity in music is treated, and noted that moderate or strong profanity used in background music, backing tracks, intro/outro music can now earn full ad revenue. Previously, such content would have received no ad revenue. In addition, the use of any profanity in titles and thumbnails will still be demonetized and cannot run ads, as was the case before the update in November.
The new policy goes into effect starting today. It’s worth noting that although the new policy doesn’t address all of the concerns that creators had and is still somewhat vague, it should make it easier for a big chunk of creators to continue monetizing their videos without having to make major changes.
It’s clear that YouTube is trying to make its massive trove of videos more age appropriate and advertiser friendly, but retrofitting new monetization rules onto a platform like YouTube is a delicate balance, as the past few months have shown.

YouTube plans to modify profanity rules that prompted creator backlash

YouTube relaxes controversial profanity and monetization rules following creator backlash by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch
YouTube relaxes controversial profanity and monetization rules following creator backlash

Roku soars past revenue expectations as it bets on streaming devices to boost growth

Over a month after Roku announced its first Roku-branded TVs, which will launch in the U.S. in spring 2023, the hardware company reported its quarterly earnings this afternoon, which showed Roku beat its own revenue expectations, reporting a total net revenue of $867.1 million for Q4.
The company previously cautioned investors of a shaky fourth quarter, predicting total revenue at around $800 million, a 7.5% decrease year over year. In Q3, Roku had total revenue of $761 million. Analysts predicted a year-over-year decline of 7% to $804.19 million.
However, the company’s Q1 2023 guidance is still cautious of the current macroenvironment. Roku predicts a total net revenue of $700 million.
Also, Roku recently announced that it surpassed 70 million active accounts globally in 2022, an impressive milestone for the company. It had 65.4 million active accounts in Q3. For comparison, rival Tubi, Fox’s free ad-supported streaming TV service, revealed yesterday that it reached 64 million monthly active users.
Plus, Roku had a 19% year-over-year increase in global streaming hours, with a total of 87.4 billion streaming hours in 2022 and 23.9 billion for the fourth quarter.
Despite the growth in accounts, Roku continued to see operating losses widen to $249.9 million, compared to a loss of $147 million in the prior quarter. Due to the economic challenges, Roku wrote in an SEC filing in November that it planned to cut 200 jobs in the U.S. between Q4 2022 and Q1 2023.
“We plan to continue to improve our operating expense profile to better manage through the challenging macro environment while building on our platform’s monetization and engagement tools and partnerships,” the company wrote in its letter to shareholders. “Through a combination of operating expense control and revenue growth, we are committed to a path that delivers positive adjusted EBITDA for full year 2024. Our platform and industry leadership positions us well for reaccelerated revenue growth as the ad market recovers and the shift to TV streaming continues.”
The company added that Roku’s operating system (OS), which will power the forthcoming Roku-branded TVs, grew to 38% of units sold in the U.S. Q4 2022, per NPD. This means Roku OS continues to be among the top-selling smart TV OS in the U.S. The new Roku-branded TVs, announced last month, were another significant move for the company.
Roku recently closed a few deals with major companies to boost its streaming business. For instance, the company closed a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, getting 2,000 hours of movies and TV shows, including HBO’s “Westworld,” “The Bachelor,” “Cake Boss” and “Say Yes to the Dress,” among others.
Earlier this week, the company struck an exclusive programming deal with Pocket.watch, a kids and family entertainment studio, to bring more children’s content to the Roku Channel.
Also, Roku partnered with DoorDash earlier this month to give customers a free six-month subscription to DashPass and launched interactive shoppable ads for DoorDash businesses on Roku devices.

Roku ends 2022 with new milestone, tops 70M active accounts

Roku unveils its first-ever TVs designed and built by the company

 
Roku soars past revenue expectations as it bets on streaming devices to boost growth by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch
Roku soars past revenue expectations as it bets on streaming devices to boost growth

Tubi reaches 64M monthly active users as ad-supported streaming grows

Fox’s free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service, Tubi, reached 64 million monthly active users, the company announced today. The last time the company reported its subscriber base was in May 2022, when Tubi had 51 million. When Fox purchased the streaming service in 2020, Tubi then had 25 million monthly active users.
Fox recently reported quarterly earnings, which showed significant viewership growth at Tubi. Its total viewing time was up 44% year over year, with over 5 billion hours streamed in 2022. It’s likely Tubi viewership will increase even more since the streamer struck a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, gaining more than 2,000 hours of WB-branded content.
Tubi claims to have the largest free streaming content catalog, with over 50,000 titles and more than 200 live TV channels.

Tubi reports record growth, expands original content and linear channel offerings

The latest monthly active user figure was reported alongside Fox’s annual research report, “The Stream: 2023 Actionable Insights for Brands,” which shows an increased interest in cheaper ad-supported plans. The company predicted that by 2024, one in three U.S. consumers would stream AVOD (ad-supported video-on-demand). This is likely due to subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services hiking up their prices. Netflix and Disney+ were the most recent SVOD streamers to launch ad tiers.
Fox predicts that AVOD growth will increase by 9% in 2023 and 24% between 2022 and 2026 in total. Meanwhile, SVOD growth will remain “relatively flat,” the company wrote.
“As subscription costs continue to rise, nearly one in three streamers plan to reduce spending on streaming services this year,” said Mark Rotblat, chief revenue officer at Tubi, in a statement.
The report also stated that, within the past year, Tubi content was watched by one in five AVOD subscribers.
It’s pretty easy to see why AVOD services — especially free services — are becoming more and more favorable as they are closer in proximity to the cable experience, without the long-term contracts or hefty fees. Sixty-three percent of survey respondents said that free AVOD services are attractive because they typically offer more flexibility than cable and satellite TV and provide a more customized viewing experience.
Also, 45% of respondents said that they value streaming services with fewer ads. Tubi has arguably one of the lightest ad loads across AVOD services, citing between four and six minutes of ads per hour. However, the report found that less than one in five customers are still unsatisfied with the length of ad breaks on Tubi, but still prefer lighter ad loads compared to traditional TV, which has about nine or ten minutes.
For comparison, Peacock keeps the ad load around five minutes per hour. Disney+, Netflix and HBO Max aim for about four minutes.

Fox-owned Tubi expands its free streaming service to five Latin American countries

Tubi reaches 64M monthly active users as ad-supported streaming grows by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch
Tubi reaches 64M monthly active users as ad-supported streaming grows

YouTube rolls out new Partner Program terms as Shorts revenue sharing begins on February 1

YouTube will begin sharing ad revenue with Shorts creators on February 1, the company revealed on Monday. To prepare for the upcoming change, YouTube is starting to roll out new terms for all creators in the YouTube Partner Program. Creators need to accept the new terms by July 10 to remain in the program.
The major change to YouTube’s Partner Program will allow creators to earn money from ads that are viewed between videos in the Shorts Feed. Although the new revenue sharing model will replace the YouTube Shorts Fund, the company says it expects the majority of its Shorts Fund recipients to earn more with the new Shorts revenue sharing model. As previously announced, creators can apply to the program if they meet a new Shorts-specific threshold of 1,000 subscribers and 10 million Shorts views over 90 days.
As part of the new terms, creators need to accept specific monetization modules. The first module is called the “Watch Page Monetization Module” and allows creators to earn money from ads served on their long-form videos and YouTube Premium. The next module is called the “Shorts Monetization Module” and lets you earn money from ads that play between Shorts in the Shorts Feed and YouTube Premium. The last module is called the “Commerce Product Addendum” and is for features like Channel Memberships and Supers.
YouTube recommends that creators accept all of the modules to unlock their full earning potential on the platform. Creators that make Shorts and have accepted the new Shorts Monetization Module will become eligible for Shorts ads revenue sharing on their Shorts views starting next month.
As for how exactly the Shorts revenue sharing will work, it’s a bit complex due to music licensing. Each month, revenue from the ads appearing between Shorts will be added together and used to reward monetizing Shorts creators and cover the costs of music licensing. A portion of the total revenue will be allocated to the creator pool based on views and music usage across all watched Shorts. If a creator uploads a Short without music, all of the revenue associated with its views goes toward the creator pool. If a creator uploads a Short with music, the revenue based on its views will be split among the Creator Pool and music partners based on the number of tracks used.
Next, the creator pool is allocated to creators. YouTube explains that it will allocate revenue to monetizing Shorts creators based on their share of total Shorts views in the Creator Pool. If a creator got 5% eligible views out of all Shorts uploaded by monetizing creators, they will then be allocated 5% of the revenue in the creator pool. Creators will keep 45% of their allocated Shorts revenue. For instance, if a creator is allocated $1,000 from the creator pool, they will be paid $450.
It’s worth noting that non-original Shorts are not eligible for revenue sharing. Non-original Shorts are those that include unedited clips from movies or TV shows, re-uploaded content from other creators on YouTube or another platform, or compilations with no original content added. Shorts that receive artificial or fake views, such as from automated clicks or scroll bots, are also ineligible for revenue sharing.
With these upcoming changes, YouTube Shorts is poised to become TikTok’s biggest competitor. If creators can make more money via YouTube Shorts than on TikTok, they’re incentivized to make original content for the YouTube platform. No short-form video platform has quite figured out how to share ad revenue up until now, which gives Shorts a notable leg up on the competition.

YouTube targets TikTok with revenue sharing for Shorts, Partner Program expansion

YouTube rolls out new Partner Program terms as Shorts revenue sharing begins on February 1 by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch
YouTube rolls out new Partner Program terms as Shorts revenue sharing begins on February 1

Despite challenges, Netflix says its ad tier is doing well

In November, Netflix unveiled its long-anticipated ad-supported tier which offers customers in select markets, including the U.S., the ability to offset the cost of a Netflix subscription by allowing their viewing to be interrupted with ad breaks. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Netflix President of Worldwide Advertising, Jeremi Gorman, offered some initial insight into how the product has been performing as well as the streamer’s future plans.
During an interview at Variety’s Entertainment Summit at CES, the exec said the company has been happy with the debut selection of advertisers and their diversity.
“It’s really across the board,” said Gorman, of the variety of brands participating. “We’re seeing CPG companies, luxury companies, automotive companies…[and] retail. We’re seeing a broad swath.” This is also good for the consumer experience, she noted, as it means viewers won’t be bored by one car ad after another. “There’s a wide variety of advertising types, and I think we’ll continue to see that,” Gorman predicted.
The interview also touched on some of the early complaints and concerns about Netflix’s foray into ads.
Among them is the key pushback the company has been receiving over its high ad prices, asking for what one industry exec dubbed “Super Bowl CPMs.” Gorman, however, justified the pricing but admitted the market will ultimately dictate what sort of pricing Netflix will be able to get.
“From a supply-demand perspective, the premium CPMs are reflective of two things: one is that we just couldn’t take that many advertisers. We certainly didn’t want to disappoint anybody. Then secondarily, the premium content environment in which the ads run I think warrants a high CPM.”
Whether Netflix constitutes a “premium environment” is up for debate, of course. But Netflix seems to be adjusting its expectations.
“I think we’re certainly humble enough to very much understand we’re top of market, and in addition to that, the market will more or less dictate to us what are reasonable CPMs,” Gorman said.
Another concern about Netflix’s ad-supported service has to do with which content can include ads. As the streamer wasn’t set up as an ad-supported service to begin with, many of its content deals didn’t include AVOD rights (advertising video on demand). That means Netflix has limited ad inventory, and couldn’t even run ads against some of its own “Netflix Originals” if the deals didn’t include the proper rights.
Gorman addressed this as well, saying Netflix was actively working on the licensing issues.
“That’s progressing, as we speak, day by day. We’re renegotiating deals we made a long time ago,” she said, adding that the “vast majority” of content that people watch regularly is available in the ad tier surface. In the meantime, Netflix has about 85% to 95% of its content available on the ad tier, Gorman said.
Then there’s the real concern that, from a business perspective, offering a lower-cost tier has the potential to cannibalize Netflix’s existing subscriptions as customers drop to cheaper tiers at a quicker rate that’s not offset by growth in the ads tier. Gorman, though, downplayed those concerns saying Netflix customers historically have remained on the plan they’re currently on.
The exec, unfortunately, couldn’t speak to the uptake of the ads-supported product, as Netflix is poised to announce earnings, but said “we’re pleased with the growth we’re seeing.”
At present, Netflix’s ad tier is available in the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico. The company has no immediate plans to expand, but longer-term would aim to target any larger ad market. In addition to ads, subscribers on the Basic with Ads plan have to deal with lower video quality (720p HD) and are limited to streaming from one device. They also can’t download content to their devices for offline viewing.
Going forward, Netflix aims to do a bit more than just running typical ads, including things like dynamic insertion of ads near moments that are relevant to marketers, single-show sponsorships, and more. It will also later allow marketers to target ads by age and gender.
Despite challenges, Netflix says its ad tier is doing well by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch
Despite challenges, Netflix says its ad tier is doing well