Locked out: YouTube changes qualification for ad revenue

Дата публикации: 11-08-2026 08:33:30

It's now twice as hard to get some of Google's money.
Sponsored by Magellan AI. What shifted in podcast ad spend last quarter? Magellan AI's Q2 Benchmark Report breaks it down. Download the report https://podnews.net/cc/3644
Visit https://podnews.net/update/youtube-qualification for the story links in full, and to get our daily newsletter.

Основное содержимое страницы с новостью.

John Cardamone

• It’s going to be much harder to get money from YouTube. In “the first significant change since 2018”, YouTube has made it twice as hard to get into the YouTube Partner Program, which pays creators based on consumption on the platform. New creators applying for the program will need 8,000 qualified watch hours (in the last year), or 20 million qualified Shorts views (in the last 90 days) - both double the amount that was required previously.

• Greg Glenday, CEO of Acast, has given a statement to The Hollywood Reporter about Spotify’s “skip-ahead” ad-skipping button. “We do have some creators on the Acast platform who are not happy about this and we will support them completely as they evaluate any recourse. Acast is working privately with Spotify to understand if we could have collaborated more on the rollout or positioning,” he said. Acast didn’t give us a statement when we asked last week.

  • Many stories are now appearing about Spotify’s ad-skipping button: but some stories suggest that it doesn’t skip ads sold by Spotify. This isn’t true - our story specifically included a video with an ad on a Bill Simmons show being skipped by the tool, and Podnews understands that the feature is not targeted at competitors’ ads.

• Podcast ad revenue is up +23% year-on-year, says Magellan AI’s Q2/26 Podcast Advertising Quarterly Benchmark Report. The average ad load increased again, though - the average podcast is 8.75% ads (up from 8.25% last quarter). That’s an average of 5 and a half minutes an hour.

  • There’s a free webinar going through the data on Aug 20.

• Podcast analytics firm Bumper has increased pressure on Apple Podcasts to align with the rest of the industry, after advising clients who are looking at the numbers of Apple Podcasts “plays” to… simply ignore them. In a blog post analysing several thousand episode “plays” on Apple Podcasts, Bumper suggests that the number literally counts the number of clicks or taps of the play button.

  • AMP has a loose definition of “at least 30 seconds” to be considered a play; Spotify’s definition appears to be “at least 30 seconds, once per user per episode”; and YouTube’s plays definition appears to be “at least 30 seconds, up to five times-ish per user per episode” (but they’ve never published it). Apple’s definition is very wide of the mark, and Apple “play” numbers seems to make little sense. We’d agree - ignore them until they’re comparable.

• iHeartMedia released its Q2/26 financial results. Podcast revenue was $162mn, up +20.7% year-on-year. Podcast revenue was 16.5% of the company’s total revenue. iHeart announced a video podcast deal with Disney+ and Hulu, bringing new shows to the platform, starting with Hey Jonas!

• It’s impossible to advertise to users of ad-free video services… unless you use podcasting. Cumulus Media and Signal Hill released data showing that ad-free video streamers over-index on podcast listening: good news for advertisers who want to get in front of this hard-to-reach audience.

• Gamut is to enhance WTOP’s Top News podcast with video and up to 14 episodes a day. The Washington DC station is hiring two full-time podcast host-producers.

• A new AI voice platform, BionicVO, has launched. It uses clones of real, professional voice actors, rather than synthetic voices; the voice actors have chosen to license their voices on their own terms. “AI voices aren’t bad because the technology is bad. They’re bad because no one is directing the performance,” said founder Dan Price.

• In brief: Backyard Ventures has signed Big Mad True Crime for ad representation … Podtrac released its rankers for July. They measure participating publishers only … Speakeasy, the invite-only hosting platform from Red Seat Ventures, has announced it now supports HLS video on Apple Podcasts. The first show to carry video is Surrounded.

Tips and tricks - with Podcast Movement NYC

• Thinking of buying some paid promotion for your YouTube channel? Think again, suggests Lower Street - suggesting it actively harms your channel, rather than helps it.
• Want to reach Gen Z and Gen Alpha with podcasts? Gogo Zoger shared growth strategies at Podcast Movement in Dallas last year.

Podcast News - with Airwave Podcast data

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7	13% now consume podcasts most on the TV	0	12.01	06-08-2026
8	EXCLUSIVE: Spotify threatens podcasting with ad-skipping tool	0	9.75	04-08-2026
9	Publishers “should ignore” new YouTube view numbers	0	10.41	19-08-2026
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