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: How TV-streaming ad sellers are pitching fluidity in this year’s upfront market
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how AMC Global Media, Disney, Paramount, TelevisaUnivision and Warner Bros. Discovery are combining their linear TV and streaming inventory for ad sales.
Future of TV Briefing: How AI agents will figure into this year’s upfront negotiations
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at the conversations that upfront sellers including Disney, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery are looking to have with advertisers regarding incorporating AI agents in ad buys.
Digiday+ Research: The marketers’ 2026 guide to a shifting CTV landscape, including YouTube, Peacock and Roku
Digiday+ Research’s fifth annual report analyzes the state of ad-supported streaming and the challenges those companies pose to marketers.