YouTube demonetizing hunting videos is nothing new. In fact, a quick search yields results going back to 2018 on this topic.
However, a recent update to the media giant’s “Ad-Friendly Content Guidelines” has placed a new set of restrictions on hunting content creators, making it more difficult than ever to produce content that hunters want to see and still make ad revenue.
For those not familiar with how YouTube works, the concept is simple. First, you create a channel and upload your videos. If your audience grows large enough, YouTube runs ads before and during your videos, then gives you a percentage of the revenue.
The more subscribers and views you get, the more money you can make. The top YouTube producers in the world make millions of dollars through this program.
In recent years, the popularity of hunting-based YouTube shows such as Seek One, Hush, The Hunting Public, and others have grown tremendously. Some of the most popular hunting channels have hundreds of thousands of subscribers and generate a significant amount of revenue.
This week, several large channels that include hunting content, including Seek One, received notice that they would not be able to generate any revenue for the next 30 days due to a violation of YouTube’s content guidelines. Like most things Google-owned, the message was very vague with no specifics given and nobody to speak to about their decision.
They were essentially told to figure it out on their own, get the problem fixed, and then apply in 30 days to have their monetization reinstated. Google is notorious for not allowing people a way to appeal their decisions or to speak with an actual human being. It’s almost as if they want you to fail.
Upon closer inspection of the YouTube Ad-Friendly Content Guidelines, it was found that in July of 2021 the policy was updated to “make it clearer that footage of animals in distress induced by human intervention may not run ads”.
Naturally, the hunting and killing of animals fall within this new guideline. Meaning that hunting content as we know it can no longer be used to make money on YouTube.
The exact policy reads as follows.
You can turn on ads for this content:
- Hunting content where there’s no depiction of graphic animal injuries or prolonged suffering.
- Hunting videos where the moment of kill or injury is indiscernible, and with no focal footage of how this dead animal is processed for trophy or food purposes.
While they don’t go into much detail, it seems clear that any impact shots or footage of an animal after it has been shot is no longer acceptable if you want to make ad revenue. And although they don’t clearly define what is acceptable, it certainly seems like all “kill shots” must either be omitted or obfuscated to the point you can’t clearly see what’s happening.
Additionally, footage of processing your animal after the kill is no longer allowed to be monetized. This would seem to include field dressing, caping, quartering, and processing the meat from your harvest.
The reason for YouTube’s change in policy is unclear, and we’re not likely to get an official statement from the social media powerhouse. Although one can fairly safely assume that with some of the world’s largest corporate brands now advertising on YouTube, they simply don’t want their ads playing before videos of animals being shot with an arrow in slow-motion.
While I certainly don’t like the decision, I’m not naive enough to pretend I don’t understand why they made it. To be honest, I’m surprised it took them this long.
So, does Google/YouTube hate hunters?
Possibly. After all, they are one of the more “woke” organizations in the world.
Although the more likely scenario is simply that they like the money from their corporate advertisers more than they like hunting. And if hunting content must be sacrificed to make the advertisers happy, it’s an easy decision for them to make.
So What Now?
So what does this mean for those of us who create hunting content for YouTube? Well, that remains to be seen. I spoke with a few content creators including Aaron Warbritton from The Hunting Public and Jonathan Boehme from Catman Outdoors to get their opinions.
Like many others, they are concerned with recent developments but are waiting to see what happens next before making any serious changes to their channels or content.
While content creators have the option of simply leaving YouTube and going elsewhere, this poses several issues. First, where do you go? Second, how do you replace the revenue that you lost?
YouTube has the market pretty much cornered on revenue-sharing for content creators. Building your own website, streaming platform, or video-sharing service requires a massive amount of capital to get started, and then time to build an audience large enough to attract advertisers.
So while the easy answer is to simply leave, I don’t see that as being a viable option for most creators.
In light of the new guidelines, my guess is that you’ll see a lot less impact footage, kill shot compilations, tracking, recoveries, and processing footage on YouTube. So, basically, all of the good stuff. You’ll still be able to watch hunting on YouTube, but it likely won’t ever be the same again.
Thankfully for us here at Bowhunting.com, we recognized long ago that being tied to a platform that you’re not in control of put us at a serious disadvantage. Especially when they’re based in Silicon Valley and not likely to be pro-hunting.
While we do utilize YouTube to distribute our content, that’s not the only way to get your Bowhunt or Die fix. Below are the best ways to watch Bowhunt or Die to get the full “director’s cut” from here on out, and not the watered-down made-for-YouTube version.
Check back often as we’ll keep this article updated with any further developments as we learn about them.
UPDATE: As of today (9/23/21) the 30-day suspension of revenue has been removed from the Seek One YouTube channel, and they are monetized again. Lee from Seek One went on a livestream with Andrew Flair from Fishing With Flair to discuss the matter. You can watch the livestream here – https://www.instagram.com/p/CUJW0xbgRJG/
