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Preparing Central Tech…
YouTube launched in 2005 as a video sharing platform, and was acquired by Google (now Alphabet) in 2006. It has built an entire community of creators that run channels dedicated to topics like gaming, tech reviews, and beauty. It also houses news videos and entertainment such as music videos, movie trailers, and clips from late-night TV shows.
YouTube’s rapid growth has not been without problems. YouTubers typically make money from ads that run in front of their videos, but if they break the platform’s rules, their channels and videos can be demonetized. Executives and moderators have worked to combat harassment, misinformation, terrorist propaganda, hate content, and other abuse.
The Verge runs two YouTube channels, The Verge and Verge Science.
Last week, it was reported that on videos uploaded with the SRV3 (aka YTT) format, which allows for styling captions with things like bolding and custom colors, the captions wouldn’t appear.
But YouTube says it has “temporarily limited” uploading SRV/YTT captions “as they may cause video playback to fail for some viewers.”
Rather than science and the modern world, the new channel looks back and tells stories from our past. The first episode is the fascinating tale of Zheng Yi Sao, the Pirate Queen of China. The art style is also quite different, more painterly. You can watch the first episode below.
Videos that include topics like reproductive rights, self-harm, suicide, and abuse will be able to earn more revenue now as long as they don’t include graphic scenes or descriptions, as spotted by Tubefilter.
Previously, videos that even mentioned potentially controversial topics would often be demonetized.
A content deal has reportedly been struck that will see the BBC producing original shows for YouTube, giving the UK broadcaster access to younger audiences and advertising revenue overseas — something it desperately needs to bolster ad-free funding at home. The deal could be announced next week.
[Financial Times]
We’ve got something special for you today. It’s my friend Hank Green, longtime internet creator, science educator, and viral TikTok star, interviewing Dropout CEO Sam Reich, now in full video on our Decoder YouTube channel.
Hank did this episode as a guest host last summer while I was out with our new baby, and it’s a fan favorite, bringing together two internet personalities that’ve known each other for a very long time and who have a lot of inside knowledge about how the internet, Hollywood, and entertainment all intertwine. We think it’s one of the best episodes of Decoder we put out last year, and it’s honestly just a really fun conversation. Here’s the full transcript in case you want to read, rather than watch, the interview.
On Thursday night, the White House Live News section featured YouTuber @RealMattMoney, for reasons that remain unclear. According to Bloomberg, “The White House is aware of the incident and looking into the matter, a White House official said on the condition of anonymity.”
The Screen Culture and KH Studio YouTube pages have suddenly disappeared, taking their fake clips with them, reports Deadline. An earlier Deadline investigation showed how they operated, mixing official movie footage with AI-generated images, which some movie studios were profiting from by claiming the ad revenue they brought in.
YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon provided this statement to The Verge:
After their initial suspension, these channels made the necessary corrections in order to be readmitted into the YouTube Partner Program. However, once monetizing again, they reverted to clear violations of our spam and misleading metadata policies, and as a result, they have been terminated from the platform.
US-based car reviewers are going gaga over Chinese EVs. Their audiences wonder why they can’t buy them.
The show, Outside Tonight, will be hosted by Recess Therapy host Julian Shapiro-Barnum. “Set in public parks and on street corners, Outside Tonight with Julian Shapiro-Barnum revitalizes a classic format with weekly, live shows packed with star studded interviews, audience driven games, live music, and nonstop comedy,” YouTube says.
During an earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger said the company isn’t “trying to break any new ground” on a deal that would end the ESPN blackout:
The deal that we have proposed is equal to or better than what other large distributors have already agreed to... While we’ve been working tirelessly to close this deal and restore our channels to the platform, it’s also imperative that we make sure that we agree to a deal that reflects the value that we deliver.
The Athletic reports that Disney and Google’s CEOs have become “more involved” in the negotiations nearly two weeks after ESPN, ABC, and other Disney-owned channels went dark on YouTube TV.
Sources tell the outlet that YouTube TV is still trying to determine how much it should pay for Disney’s non-sports networks like Freeform, FX, and National Geographic.
Ahead of one of the biggest games of the NFL season so far, I have a feeing there might be something he wants to talk about. He’ll be on the show at 8PM ET.
Now that the Disney blackout has dragged on for an “extended period of time,” Google will begin handing out the promised credits today. Customers should get an email explaining how to apply the one-time credit to their next bill. But, $20 probably won’t satisfy disgruntled customers who just want to watch SportsCenter.
The traditional late-night TV space has been in something of a dire spot lately, but in all of the chaos, Google and YouTube see an opportunity to get more people watching streaming talk shows like Hot Ones, Good Mythical Morning, and Brittany Broski’s Royal Court.
The standoff between Disney and YouTube started just before midnight on Thursday evening, and unlike the 36-hour tiff in 2021, there’s no sign of an end yet. Disney said it asked Google to turn the networks on for 24 hours for election (and probably football) coverage, but YouTube declined.
There are plenty of other options for customers - election news information is very widely available across other broadcast stations and news networks on YouTube TV, as well as on the main YouTube service, for free. In fact, on the last two U.S. election days, the vast majority of tuned in YouTube TV subscribers chose not to watch ABC.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, just released its Q3 2025 earnings report (pdf), reporting revenue is up by 16 percent from the same period last year, at $102 billion for three months, compared to $88.2 billion in 2024 and $76.6 billion in 2023.
Sundar Pichai:
Our full stack approach to AI is delivering strong momentum and we’re shipping at speed, including the global rollout of AI Overviews and AI Mode in Search in record time... The Gemini App now has over 650 million monthly active users... And we have over 300 million paid subscriptions led by Google One and YouTube Premium.
The social media giants have agreed to boot users under 16 from their platforms by the December 10th deadline, but are still voicing skepticism about the policy’s enforcement and effectiveness.
Correction: YouTube has also said it disagrees with the law, but has not said it will comply.
Reuters: Their comments represented a shift in the social media industry’s response to the law, which is being watched by lawmakers around the world as concern grows about youth mental health. Under the Australian law, platforms must take “reasonable steps” to block users aged less than 16 or face a fine of up to A$49.5 million ($32.5 million).
YouTubers will be soon be able to make use of Adobe Premiere editing tools through a new hub, Create for YouTube shorts. It’s launching soon, both inside the new Premiere mobile app and built directly into YouTube itself.
Expect “exclusive effects, transitions, templates and more.”
