You guys may have seen
my video on this a few days back, which really brought the issue to light not long after Maker / Polaris sent out an email confirming the changes. Some things obviously -
1. This isn't a rumor. The thread title should be updated, as the affiliate option for MCNs is happening, and some of the biggest are dropping the hammer on their existing partners hard.
2. This is most likely going to bring about some big shifts in the Youtube community.
3. Existing partners deserve more from the MCNs not willing to give out managed status to anyone with a current contract.
There's a lot of spin going on surrounding who gets managed status, and who doesn't. The reality is the MCNs are given the choice to take on additional responsibility for copyright strikes by making their channels managed (which was the relationship prior to this change), or washing their hands of that responsibility by switching some / all of their channels to affiliates. The biggest problem here is that you've got tens of thousands of channels today partnered with the biggest MCNs, and none have been given the option to opt-out of the change because of the bullshit spin by the networks (i.e. nothing is changing, you'll still get all these great benefits!)
I've spent many hours now working behind the scenes with the network I'm affiliated with - Marker, parent of Polaris, and RPM. I've also spent time talking with other networks, partners at other channels, and even game developers / publishers that have insight into all of this. At the end of the day the risk that these MCNs now have to take on is scaling financial penalties for copyright strikes, which as far as I'm aware only apply if a copyright strike sticks. Ultimately though punishing the channels with existing contracts is not the answer, nor is expecting those channels to just roll with these changes when they're still expected to share 30-40% or worse at the biggest networks (Polaris, Machinima, RPM). It's scummy as hell, and bad business all around.
At this point it is my goal to help forge some sort of agreement where Maker, along with other networks, will extend an exit offer to all channels affected. This is because regardless of how many times they tell me that nothing is changing, things are really changing, and it's a modification of the relationship. The choice to not make all existing channels managed only shows that these companies have absolutely no faith in their partnered channels, even those that have never subjected their network to a single copyright strike. For example, I have had my channel since 2006, and I have no history of a copyright strike on my account, nor have I subjected Polaris to a strike since I signed a contract with them in August of last year. Despite that, I am in the affiliate pool, along with so many others.
With things playing out as we've been told they will I predict that we will see a very serious impact on networks like Maker, Machinima, and Fullscreen, with lots of bleed all around, and restructuring / layoffs as these MCNs try to weather the storm as partner generated revenue ratchets down. I know of many channels now that are considering seeking out new homes, some at relatively well known alternative networks like Curse (who are offering managed status much more loosely), others at relatively new startup MCNs like Foxital, and of course some talking about just outright forming a new MCN with other established game related Youtubers. Smaller networks and partnerships look to be the future.
It's really a shitty situation overall, and I'm sure none of the networks are happy about it, but at the end of the day the flak networks like Maker/Polaris/RPM and Fullscreen are taking right now is entirely the fault of the network execs due to their unwillingness to extend managed status and/or an exit option to their existing contract holders. This is all about MCN policy at this point, Youtube only told them that it's up to them to choose how to designate these new channels with the new terms tied to copyright strikes.
I will say that it's great to see support from so many channels in all of this, it's clear who out there really cares about the little guy. I don't want to start tossing names out there, but we've had some very vocal supporters both big and small, and even some of those that aren't at liberty to talk have shown support in other ways, such as sharing my video with their own communities via retweets and/or likes .