One of YouTube's most well-known personalities, Philip DeFranco is launching his own independent media channel, DeFranco Elite, funded through Patreon with support from his fans.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00 needs to be a rational place where we can come together and talk about the
00:03 world in a place where we trust what's actually being fed to us." One of
00:06 YouTube's most well-known personalities, Philip DeFranco, is launching his own
00:10 independent media channel, DeFranco Elite, funded through Patreon with support from
00:15 his fans. And it's not just him. There have been so many changes on YouTube
00:20 lately. You've probably seen the videos here at What's Trending. We haven't
00:23 spoken out about it, but now we think it's time. This whole decision to go to
00:26 a crowdfunded support system comes after months of change around YouTube's
00:31 monetization policies. And DeFranco's not the first. News Network, The Young Turks,
00:36 sustains from their subscription service and donations from viewers. And other
00:39 YouTubers are flocking to platforms like Patreon to stay alive. But this didn't
00:45 happen overnight. Let's take a look back at the history to give you some context.
00:48 In 2016, many YouTubers, including DeFranco, publicly criticized YouTube for
00:53 demonizing creator content for not being "advertiser friendly." The
00:58 controversy began when YouTube started emailing creators when videos were
01:01 demonetized. YouTube's policy has always been to pull ads and advertising revenue
01:05 from videos flagged as containing inappropriate or non-original material.
01:10 But now content was flagged for "vulgar or sexually explicit language." Also, many
01:14 YouTube creators found out that lots of their content had been demonetized
01:17 without any noticed and lost revenue without ever knowing. DeFranco himself,
01:22 who often uses colorful language but also discusses some gritty topics in his
01:26 show, called the demonetization of his videos "censorship." I tend to agree, and
01:31 it's a very gray area. What some person might deem as appropriate is what another
01:36 person might deem as inappropriate. So who wins here? One of YouTube's biggest
01:40 stars and advocates, Casey Neistat, also called out YouTube back in 2016 for poor
01:44 communication about ad revenue and all these changes. "And that lack of
01:48 communication affects creators and affects them in their most sensitive
01:52 place, which is in the wallet. That is a very, very dangerous game." It's also
01:56 interesting to see that all these changes have been happening specifically
01:59 as YouTube has been introducing their YouTube Red service, their Netflix, which
02:03 is a subscription service. So basically they're pushing people away from free
02:06 content and saying like, "You want this stuff, you want the premise stuff, you
02:10 don't want all this other stuff." Meaning the stuff that this platform was built on.
02:14 And then also with YouTube TV. I mean it's pretty much all big media companies.
02:18 I don't see any independent creators. How is an independent creator supposed to
02:22 make money in this day and age? Tell me, please. The monetization policies have
02:26 also gotten more restrictive. Early in 2017, YouTube was widely criticized for
02:31 hiding LGBTQ related content while users were in restricted mode. Others were
02:36 demonetized for sexually explicit material for simply using the word "gay."
02:40 And a lot of creators have called this out. There are some creators that
02:43 literally their entire channel can't be seen in restricted mode. Even some of
02:47 What's Trending's videos, like not all of our content can be viewed in a
02:51 restricted mode, which then impacts views and the revenue we're making. And it's
02:54 almost ironic in this push to become a new Netflix, if you look at all these
02:59 other OTT platforms from Netflix to Amazon, all their content is actually
03:05 pretty edgy. I get that when you have YouTube's biggest star like PewDiePie
03:09 getting taken off YouTube because he has "Nazi material." I get it. It creates a
03:14 domino effect where advertisers pull the ads from YouTube. And they did. There has
03:18 been an advertiser boycott. So I get how YouTube could be freaking out. I mean,
03:22 Maker Studios, one of the first multi-channel networks that helped
03:25 creators grow and that built that model, has been basically shut down by Disney
03:30 who bought it. And while creators like Phil DeFranco are going to kill it, I
03:33 mean, he already has a ton of donors. He's gonna do it. I'm so excited for him. Even
03:38 big creators like h3h3 are leaving. I mean, they're going over to Twitch. I feel
03:43 like people, ourselves included, were hoping and holding on to the fact that
03:49 this was gonna get better. And I think for a lot of people it has gotten better.
03:53 But for ourselves, it continues to get worse to the point where we don't
03:59 think that we can continue to even exist. We see with PewDiePie, I mean, he's
04:04 basically been completely flagged from the platform. He's going to Twitch. So
04:08 everyone's trying to figure out a new solution because we're not gonna be able
04:12 to rely on YouTube anymore. We've seen the YouTube is over party hashtag, but it
04:17 might be happening now. So, do you think the YouTube star and creator is done? Is
04:21 it over? And how are these changes impacting you? Let us know in the
04:24 comments below. For more stories, go to whatstrending.com.