Alphabet to place ads on YouTube only after 10,000 views

YouTube parent company Alphabet said yesterday that it would place ads on channels only if they reached 10,000 views, as it tried to keep out people who made money on the site by plagiarising content from other sources.

The video streaming service added, once a video channel crossed the threshold, it would review the content to see whether it qualified for the placement of ads.

"By keeping the threshold to 10k views, we also ensure that there will be minimal impact on our aspiring creators," Ariel Bardin, YouTube's vice president of product management, said in a blog post.

YouTube had come under fire for ads appearing alongside videos carrying homophobic or anti-Semitic messages, which prompted a number of companies to suspend their digital ads on the video streaming service (See: Hate content: Now, J&J, GSK, join others in suspending ads on Google).

The company had said last month that it would overhaul its practices, adding it had undertaken an extensive review of its advertising policies.

While brands had called for greater control over the videos where their ads appeared, the step taken by YouTube this week was likely to be insignificant in allaying those concerns, according to analyst Jan Dawson of Jackdaw Research.

"Most of these (extremist) videos are going to get more viewers than that anyway," Dawson said of the 10,000-view threshold set by YouTube.

"They're popular among the particular audience that they are targeting."

The move would mean new creators looking to be in the YouTube Partner Program would need to wait until they accrued 10,000 total views on videos on their channel before they could start showing ads and collecting revenue.

YouTube's Partner Program started when the site was in its infancy. Video creators who join get to monetise their videos, work with YouTube more closely to make better content, and receive general advice about creating online videos.