YouTube tightens the rules for Monetization and Partnerships
Each video in its elite ad program will be examined by human reviewers, while the bar has been raised for joining the program. New videos uploaded to Google Preferred channels will also have to be manually verified to meet YouTube guidelines before they can run ads.
Previously, they needed 10,000 total views to join the program. Starting today, channels also need to have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of view time in the past year. (For now, those are just requirements to join the program, but Google says it will also start applying them to current partners on February 20.)
I saw this on Facebook this morning. It's pretty horrible.
Its a game changer and upsetting the current system.
It doesn't even fix the issues either. It is certain individual big channels that wouldn't even be affected by this that have done the most damage and if those requirements were in when they messed up, they still would have done the same thing because they would have been eligible for ads anyway. Punishing the small creators achieves nothing.