I uploaded a few videos to YouTube, and just found a checkbox titled "Allow advertisements to be displayed alongside my videos" on https://www.youtube.com/advanced_settings when looking around.
At first, I thought that maybe that's for making money from your videos and was surprised it was checked (because I didn't (consciously) check it as I don't plan to make money from my videos). But then I saw that it says
Does not apply to videos that you monetize and videos that are claimed by a third-party.
in small, gray text below it.
So monetizing is something different, it seems. Is this correct?
If so: Why does YouTube give their users the option to choose whether there will be ads on their videos? If there are no ads on a video, YouTube can't make money from it.
If not: Why does it say the setting doesn't apply to monetization?
Am I or are my viewers given any disadvantage if I uncheck this box? Does it mean they will never see ads when watching my videos?
Best Answer
If you despise YouTube making money from your video, you can disable ads on your videos. Seems a bit silly now, but when YouTube originally switched to being an ad-supported website, "everyone" was up in arms about how YouTube was going downhill, so they offered that option.
The grey thing underneath means that if a video is claimed, you have no control over whether ads appear or not.
The setting is a requirement to monetizing content (if you turn off ads you cannot make money from ads) however, you can enable it (or keep it enabled) if you want to support YouTube hosting your videos even if you're not monetizing yourself.