According to a report from Mediaweek, YouTube has sent written warnings to a number of content producers who feature their own advertisers in videos on Google’s popular video service. YouTube, of course, is mostly interested in selling ads on its own network, and advertisers who buy overlay ads on YouTube don’t want to see their messages mixed in with other sponsor announcements and product placements. A ‘black market’ for ad placements in videos is obviously something that YouTube, which is still struggling to find a viable monetization strategy, is not trying to encourage.
According to YouTube’s Terms of Service, content creators would need “prior written authorization” from YouTube before they can post commercial videos on the service.
Of course, there are thousands of commercial videos on YouTube where producers did not ask for written consent from the company before posting these videos, and, according to Mediaweek, YouTube has only contacted a very small number of these though the service is clearly trying to signal that it is not happy with the current situation. While YouTube is only notifying a small number of content owners, some producers complain that YouTube will not promote their videos if they include product placements.
YouTube, which dominates the online video market, is one of the most important outlets for most content producers, and YouTube has every interest in keeping its most prolific talent on the service. At the same time, though, YouTube is also bleeding a good amount of money every single day.
According to Mediaweek, YouTube will soon announce a more formal process for integrating commercial videos that integrates their own ads and product placements.
