YouTube is tightening the path into its Partner Program, raising the minimum audience requirements for creators who want to earn from ads, subscriptions and Shorts. According to The Verge, the new entry rules take effect February 1, 2027: applicants will need at least 1,000 subscribers and either 8,000 qualified watch hours over the prior year or 20 million qualified Shorts views over the prior 90 days. That is a material reset of the on-ramp. Both The Verge and Engadget report that YouTube’s current threshold is 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 watch hours over the past year or 10 million Shorts views over 90 days. The subscriber requirement is unchanged, but the watch-hours and Shorts-views bars are doubling. The change also affects Shorts monetization after creators are admitted. Both outlets report that Shorts creators will need to maintain 10 million Shorts views over a 90-day period to earn from the Shorts Creators Pool. Missing that level will not remove a creator from the YouTube Partner Program, but Engadget says it would stop Shorts pool payouts for that period. Current partners are getting new maintenance rules as well. The Verge reports that creators will need to maintain at least one of three conditions to keep earning from ads and subscriptions through YPP: 1,000 watch hours over the past year, 1 million Shorts views, or a publishing cadence of two long-form videos or five Shorts every 90 days. Engadget reports the same options and adds that YouTube can remove creators who have not uploaded content for at least six months, consistent with the existing inactivity policy described by The Verge. The Verge also reports one operational deadline for creators already in the program: they must accept the new terms by January 31, 2027 to keep monetizing. That date matters because the new applicant thresholds begin the next day, leaving existing partners with a separate compliance step before the rules take effect. YouTube is pairing the tougher monetization rules with a broader rollout of Premium Lite. Both outlets report that the lower-cost subscription tier is expanding to every country where YouTube Premium is offered. YouTube told the outlets that more Premium subscribers can raise creator earnings on average, because partners earn from subscription revenue allocation as well as ads. The Verge reports that YouTube splits subscription revenue by consumption format, with 55% tied to long-form video and 45% to Shorts. Engadget notes the open question for creators: YouTube does not disclose paid subscriber counts by tier, so it is not yet clear whether Premium Lite’s expansion will offset the higher bar for new partners or the maintenance rules for existing ones. Both outlets place the policy shift inside YouTube’s broader push to look more like a premium streaming service. The Verge and Engadget point to recent deals to broadcast shows from figures such as Trevor Noah and to YouTube’s feature that lets creators arrange videos into seasons. The monetization changes do not by themselves prove a strategic pivot, but they do raise the performance floor for creators at the same time YouTube is emphasizing subscription viewing and more structured programming. Who benefits: Creators already comfortably above the new thresholds are less directly exposed to the entry-bar increase. YouTube says creators may also benefit from more Premium Lite subscribers, though the outlets note the offset is not yet measurable from public data. Who's exposed: New and smaller creators are most exposed because the subscriber threshold stays the same but the required watch time or Shorts views doubles. Shorts-first creators also face a recurring 10 million-view threshold to keep earning from the Shorts Creators Pool.