YouTube says creators have nice channels, be a shame if anything happened to them

On the carrot side, YouTube is increasing its brand sponsorship budget, offering additional financial incentive for top channels to recommit to making YouTube their home. YouTube, unlike Netflix, doesn’t pay to license content, and increased brand deals will sweeten the pot to those creators looking over the fence. 

The stick side has seen YouTube hint that any defection or cross-site moonlighting may see creators excluded from its influential Brandcast upfront event, where many major creators found initial and essential support. The company has also threatened to withhold Emmy campaign support for those who move their content to other platforms, and to remove even top creators from its lucrative YouTube Select ad program. As THR notes, at least one major YouTuber has called the company’s new hardline approach as “shocking,” noting that it marks a drastic change in the relationship between host and creators. 

Tossing some shade at its competitors’ more regulated content guidelines is another YouTube strategy, with the company posting a statement from returning YouTuber Lily Singh. As the former A Little Late host said in her post about coming back to YouTube, “Hollywood has real systemic issues, especially for women and people of color. Over the past few years, I received countless notes that weren’t about improving the project, but about making it ‘more palatable,’ ‘more marketable,’ or ‘less niche.’ That is fundamentally anti-creative. Our job is to tell our stories unapologetically. On YouTube, there are no gatekeepers demanding I make my brain baby more palatable for the masses. That authenticity is why my channel worked in the first place.”

Of course, YouTube hasn’t been immune from criticism that its largely hands-off moderation policies flood users’ feeds with conspiracy nonsense, misinformation, and hate speech. But the message sent with Singh’s statement is clearly designed to retain restless creators with promises of continued, largely unfettered access to views, likes, and dollars.