Our Three Step YouTube Licensing Strategy
Blog / Resource
YouTube has long been a money-making machine for creators and vloggers. But for many professional filmmakers, producers, and distributors, YouTube has retained a reputation as a home for ‘amateur’ content. YouTube is now too big to ignore, pulling in over 10% of total streaming minutes!
Our Three Step YouTube Licensing Strategy
Filmhub was the one of the first distributors to realize YouTube’s massive potential for film and TV and after distributing thousands of titles on the platform continues to develop innovative YouTube strategies. We're excited to share our approach to maximizing revenue on YouTube.
1. YouTube Movies & TV
According to YouTube’s policies, your title can not be live in more than one location on YouTube within the same territory. If it"s a fit, we’ll almost always pitch you to YouTube’s curated AVOD service first. It’s the fastest path to YouTube success!
To be pitched to YouTube Movies and TV, your title must:
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Meet YouTube’s very selective advertiser-friendly content guidelines. This is non negotiable.
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Have SVOD and AVOD rights available in any of the U.S., Canada or Australia
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Align with our sales teams’ understanding of what YouTube’s curators are looking for. Below is a visualization of what we"ve seen licensed in the past.
Please note: We are already pitching all active titles that are a good fit.
2. Premium YouTube Channels
We partner with over 15 other premium AVOD channels on YouTube including:
- V Channels - 25M+ subscribers
- VA Media channels - 10M+ subscribers
- Stash channels - 400K+ subscribers
If your title is not licensed to YouTube Movies and TV, we’ll aim to secure a global license to the premium YouTube channel that best fits the title. We are even able to secure MGs for some of these licenses. If it is licensed to YouTube Movies and TV, we’ll aim for a secondary license excluding the U.S., Canada, and Australia.
3. Windowing Premium Channels
How your title performs on these channels is driven by YouTube’s algorithm and is subject to a huge amount of variance. The same title may go unnoticed on one channel and catch fire on another. We employ a windowing strategy to give your title more chances to catch fire. If your title is not performing, or your revenue has started to wain, we’ll remove it from that channel and license it to another premium channel. This may happen multiple times until we feel we’ve found the title’s optimal placement.
Bullish on YouTube
We remain extremely enthusiastic about YouTube"s emergence as the dominant streaming force. We believe the strategy laid out above is the most effective in the industry and presents a powerful opportunity for our clients to earn more and reach an ever-growing audience.