Every signal in this story, with the reporting each one was drafted from.
Advertisers are boosting YouTube Shorts spend, agency execs say, even though Shorts CPMs run $4-6 versus $7-8 for Reels and TikTok. Bundled buys with in-stream inventory often crowd out Shorts budgets.
YouTube is raising Partner Program thresholds to 8,000 watch hours or 20M Shorts views, up from 4,000 and 10M. The move aims to choke off spammy, MFA-style channels before they can monetize and drag down ad quality platform-wide.