As a YouTube partner, you may be able to monetise your videos as rentals. Potential viewers can pay to watch your video, ad-free, for a designated period, and you can earn revenue from your rental videos on a revenue-sharing basis via your Google AdSense account.
YouTube Rentals qualification
Rentals are currently available to partners who are located in and have content viewable in the following countries: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, France, Australia, Spain and Germany.
Enable video monetisation by rental
Once you've successfully uploaded a video to be used in the YouTube Rentals programme, it's time to set your rental options.
- On your Video Manager page, click Edit next to the video you wish to rent.
- Click the Monetisation or Claiming option tab, depending on your account set-up.
- On the Monetisation tab, check the box next to "Monetise this video", and then click Rent this video. On the Claiming options tab, check the box next to "Claim this video", and then click Rent this video.
- Choose your preferred "Price per rental" from the drop-down menu.
- Choose your "Duration of rental" from the drop-down menu. (See below for more information about "Unlimited Duration".)
- If applicable, provide any additional information regarding ownership and publicity rights.
- If applicable, enter information about your video, including Title, Description and Tags.
- Click Save Changes.
If you would like to select and upload another video file, click Upload Video and start the process again.
You can change your rental price and duration at any time by clicking Edit Rental Options in your account. You may also disable rental on the video altogether, after which you may have the option to make your video available for ad-supported monetisation.
Setting your videos to "Unlimited Duration"
Setting a video rental to "Unlimited Duration" means that users will be able to access it on YouTube for an unlimited time. You will not have the option to remove the video or to deny access to the video for users who have rented it. Please make sure that you're willing to rent this video with an unlimited duration on a permanent basis before you select this option.
Where can YouTube videos be rented?
YouTube videos can be rented on YouTube.com, but cannot currently be enabled for mobile or TV syndication.
You can enable embedding for rentable videos if you wish to host your rentals on sites other than YouTube.com. Embedding is disabled by default on rentals, but here's how to enable it:
- Select "My Uploaded Videos" from your Video Manager.
- Click the Edit Video Info button to the right of the video in question.
- Click the "Broadcasting and Sharing Options" section.
- Click the radio button next to "Yes, external sites may embed and play this video".
- Click the Update Video Info button at the bottom of the page.
Uploading content
Uploading content from DVD to YouTube
Commercial software exists that will create unencrypted video files from DVDs for legitimate content owners. Performing a Google search should point you to these resources.
If uploading longer videos results in a smaller clip, this may be caused by the chapter breaks on your DVD. You can find information on how to consolidate these multiple files into a single file for upload below.
Multiple files in my VIDEO_TS folder
For unencrypted DVDs:
If you're seeing multiple files within your DVD's VIDEO_TS folder, you'll need to stitch the VOB files together into one file to upload. First, determine exactly which VOB files you want to stitch together.
Windows users:- Go to Start > Run > type "cmd" in Windows.
- Type "cd FOLDER NAME" to the folder containing the VOB files (using your folder's name).
- Type "copy /b vob1.vob + vob2.vob + vob3.vob outputFile.mpg" to combine vob1.vob, vob2.vob and vob3.vob into a single outputfile.mpg (replacing the above examples with your VOB's filenames).
Additionally, software exists for both Mac and PC that can turn an unencrypted DVD file into a single VOB file, which can then easily be uploaded directly to YouTube. Performing a Google search should point you to these resources.
Rentals payment & reporting
YouTube Rentals earnings are processed by AdSense and can be tracked within your AdSense account. Payments for your rentals earnings are processed by AdSense, according to the AdSense payment timeline.
Reporting on all rental activity can be found in your CMS "Downloadable Reports". To access these reports, please:
- Log in to your YouTube account.
- Navigate to the "Overview" section of your Account Settings page, and click the link for Partner Reports.
- Under "YouTube Rentals Monthly Reports" and "YouTube Rentals Weekly Reports", you will find the "Downloadable Reports" for your YouTube Rentals.
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