YouTube Updates: Profanity Rule Changes, Side-by-Side Ads & Livestream Community Leaderboard

Transcript

We had the opportunity to talk to someone who is actually working on the YouTube side-by-side ads for live streams, and we have some new information to share. Firstly, why are they only side-by-side and not full-screen? Well, there are a few technical limitations at play here.

The main reason is that YouTube wants to reuse the 16:9 ads already provided by advertisers, which run before videos or as mid-rolls. They want to integrate these into live streams as mid-rolls but in a side-by-side format. This would require advertisers to create entirely new ads with a different format just for live streams, which they were not willing to do.

Additionally, creating full-screen ads in real-time is more computationally intensive. Since every non-premium viewer receives an individualized video feed with a burned-in ad, minimizing the computing cost of these video streams is crucial. This is another technical limitation preventing full-screen ads. And don’t even get me started on complaints about burned-in ads—get YouTube Premium for €6 a month, and you won’t see any ads at all. It’s the cheapest option and supports creators too.

The second update regarding side-by-side ads is that they will be rolled out more widely during the week of May 5th, in just two days. We don’t have an exact date yet, but if you’re not a YouTube Premium user, you’ll likely see them more often. Staying on the theme of YouTube Live streams, YouTube will start testing an early prototype of a community leaderboard experiment later this month.

This leaderboard will display the top 50 chatters on a channel, selected based on their interactivity in chats, Super Chats, and other interaction metrics. The top three viewers on the leaderboard will also receive a badge next to their name when they chat. This feature will work for both horizontal and vertical live streams, and creators can choose to enable or disable it as they wish.

Unfortunately, there are currently no plans to allow data exchange with the leaderboard via an API. However, we’ve submitted a feature request because this could enable channel points that interact with external third-party bots. As this develops, we’ll keep you updated.

Towards the end of May, YouTube will also make changes regarding profanity and yellow monetization icons. Previously, the first seven seconds of a video had to be free of strong profanity to avoid a yellow icon. This rule will be removed as YouTube has consulted with advertisers, who are okay with swearing. However, remember that you still need to adhere to hate speech and cyberbullying community guidelines. So, don’t go overboard, and if you can avoid strong profanity, it’s advisable to do so.

That’s all for today. If you have any further questions about the topics we discussed, feel free to leave a comment. Otherwise, we’ll see you next week with more YouTube updates. Take care!