YouTube is doubling its watch-hour requirement and adding a rolling Shorts-views threshold from February 2027, thinning the pool of monetised creators. For Australian brands, that means fewer but more professional partners. Buy for quality, not volume.
The Take: YouTube just made its monetisation door harder to open and its Shorts payout harder to keep. For Australian brands treating creators as cheap content, the supply of monetised, professional creators is about to thin out. Plan for fewer, better partners rather than more cheap ones.
What changed: From 1 February 2027, new creators need 1,000 subscribers plus 8,000 valid watch hours in a year or 20 million Shorts views in 90 days to earn ad revenue, up from 4,000 watch hours and 10 million Shorts views, according to Search Engine Journal. Creators must accept the updated monetisation terms by 31 January 2027 or lose access to those features.
The new floor: Shorts creators now have to hold 10 million qualified Shorts views across a rolling 90 days to keep drawing from the Shorts pool each month, reports Social Media Today. Channels already in the program keep earning from long-form even if their Shorts views dip, so the squeeze falls hardest on the newer creators trying to break in.
The watch-hour requirement to join the YouTube Partner Program has doubled, from 4,000 to 8,000 in a year
Follow the money: This professionalises the channel. Fewer hobbyists clear the bar and the ones who do are running a real operation. More than 5 million channels are enrolled in the Partner Program worldwide. That is a fraction of the total, and the new rules widen the gap between the creators who earn and the ones who post for free. Australia is one of the highest-paying YouTube markets in the world, with CPMs reported around $36 to $40, so the Australian creators who qualify are commercially serious and will price like it.
For Australian operators: Stop treating creator content as a pure volume play. The pool of monetised Australian creators is getting smaller and more professional, so move budget from many cheap posts to fewer partners who can actually shift product. Ask a creator for their watch-time and retention, not just their follower count, because those are the numbers that now decide whether they keep earning. Lock the good ones into longer briefs rather than one-off posts, so a partner who clears the bar has a reason to keep working with you.