What are policies?

Features described in this article only apply to users of YouTube Studio Content Manager. For info on general YouTube policies, learn more here.

In Studio Content Manager, a policy is a set of rules that specify how to handle claimed videos.

When a video is claimed, the policy determines how one or more of these rules are applied: 

 Monetise: Allow the video to be viewed with ads.

 Track: Allow the video to viewed without ads; collect statistics about video views.

 Block: Don't allow the video to be viewable on YouTube.

If you select Monetise, claimed videos will be reviewed to make sure that they meet our advertiser-friendly content guidelines before ads are displayed.

 

This option authorises YouTube to display ads with a claimed video, but it doesn't specify which types of ads are displayed. You can specify the ad types using advertising settings.

You can apply the three actions (monetise, track or block) to two different types of policies:

• Upload policies: Policies applied to claimed videos that are uploaded by channels linked to your Content Manager.
• Match policies: Policies applied to claimed videos that other YouTube users upload when they're claimed by Content ID.

Learn more about upload and match policies.

You can also apply a Route for review option to your claim policies, which means that a manual review is required before any claims are active. Learn more about routing claims for manual review.

How a claim policy works

A claim policy is made up of one or more 'if-then' rules. Those rules decide which action to take (monetise, track or block) when certain conditions are met. For example, if you only want to monetise a video for viewers in the United States and Canada, the policy would be:

Condition	Action
(1) If the user's location is the United States or Canada	Monetise the video
(2) If the user's location is elsewhere	Block the video

 

More than one partner can have a valid claim on the same video in the same territory. For example, one partner may claim the visual portion and another partner the audio portion.

When multiple partners have valid claims on a video, and therefore multiple valid policies, whichever policy results in the most restrictive action will be applied. Learn more about how policies are applied.

Choosing a claim policy

A user's location is the most common condition for a claim policy, but other conditions can be selected. In general, it's best to create policies that apply worldwide. Territory rules should only be included when you need to treat viewers differently within the territories where you own rights.

There are three predefined policies that you can choose from:

• Monetise in all countries
• Track in all countries
• Block in all countries

You can also learn how to create custom policies for more control over your content.