How YouTube is calculating creators’ ad-revenue shares for Shorts
Starting next month, YouTube will share ad revenue with Shorts creators. However, the originator of the creator ad revenue-sharing program has introduced a new twist with its short-form video service.
Unlike YouTube’s traditional revenue-sharing program or TikTok’s revenue-sharing program Pulse, YouTube is not attaching ads to individual Shorts videos in order to directly split revenue with creators and publishers. Instead, it will pool revenue to divvy up among eligible Shorts makers — but only after accounting for the platform’s music licensing costs.
In other words, the YouTube Shorts revenue-sharing model isn’t as simple as “advertiser pays platform, platform gives creator a cut.” Calculating how YouTube Shorts ad revenue will be split is more like doing taxes than basic arithmetic, as the video below breaks down.
More in Future of TV

Future of TV Briefing: Upfront ad buyers debate the value of out-of-home viewership
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at the question of how TV and streaming audiences watching in a bar or other public place should be counted — and, more importantly, charged for — compared to people watching at home.

Future of TV Briefing: The upfront measurement currency changeover will prolong the market and affect how ads are priced
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how the transition to Nielsen’s big data plus panel measurement currency is complicating price negotiations in this year’s TV and streaming ad upfront market.

Future of TV Briefing: A Q&A with Michelle Khare on why YouTube creators are contending for Emmys
This week’s Future of TV Briefing features an interview with YouTube creator Michelle Khare who has 5.1 million subscribers on YouTube and potentially someday soon an Emmy Award.