Got some new information on Youtube Red last night which makes the system worse than I'd hoped. So initially we assumed that the way the revenue split would work would be on a per Red user basis, so every month each Red users minutes watched would be calculated as a split of their subscription money and then paid out to each channel. Turns out that's not the case. There's actually a giant pool of revenue from ALL the Red subs. Your channel gets paid a percentage of the TOTAL pool, based on number of minutes watched by Red subs. So whatever the ratio of your minutes watched is vs the total minutes watched in the pool, multiplied by the total revenue would be your payout. So what's the difference between that and the other payout method? Well it's worse for smaller channels, simple as that. The idea that you could have a bunch of committed Red subs that watched you a lot and get a good chunk of their sub money every month even with a small audience is now not a viable one. The vast majority of channels will still be better off under Red than without Red but not by much. The channels that stand to benefit the most are the larger ones, with older demographics who tend to watch longer content, so channels like mine. What's annoying about this from a user standpoint is that it sees part of their sub money going to channels they dont even watch. What's annoying from a creator standpoint is that its not the equaliser for niche channels that I was hoping for. Will almost every channel still make more money than they do now? Yes. Will it be noticeable for many? Probably not, unless Red is super successful which I doubt. So conclusion? Red's not a great way to support the channels you like, if you wanna do that, you're better off buying merch, donating direct or subbing via Patreon or Twitch. Red is a good way to support the overall "Youtube Ecosystem" and it's better than having no legit ad-free option at all, but as it stands its only really going to make a big difference for the big guys and that's a real shame.