Changes To Producer Rewards Options

[Assaf P.]

Hi everyone,

Over 15 months have passed since the launch of the Producer Rewards® program. We’ve learned a lot in that time, and we now feel that we have the knowledge to truly improve the program for viewers, producers and advertisers. The changes listed below, which take effect today, are designed to meet two objectives:

1. Help us develop short-form video as an entertainment genre by showcasing a broad range of content that is entertaining to a large and diverse audience; and
2. Address concerns from viewers and advertisers about content that is inappropriate or uninteresting.

The program structure remains basically the same: any creator of an original video that meets the program requirements can submit his or her video for consideration, and we pay $5 per 1,000 views, starting at the 20,000 views mark.

What we’re updating are the criteria for acceptance into the program. A complete description of the Producer Rewards® program and its requirements is available here. We strongly encourage all producers to review this document before submitting their next video.

The most significant changes to the program are as follows:

• Going forward, we will not accept the following types of videos into the Producer Rewards® program on the basis that they are inappropriate or not entertaining:

• Videos that have sexual arousal as their primary purpose
• Videos that are primarily promotional vehicles for a product or service
• Videos that merely feature a person who is not doing anything entertaining or exceptional
• Note: Videos previously accepted into Producer Rewards® that fall into the categories described above have been removed from the program and the site. The affected creators will be paid for views that occurred before February 11, 2008. And they may re-publish their videos on Metacafe, though those videos are ineligible for future payments.

• Henceforth, videos that instruct viewers how to do something unsavory or potentially harmful to others – such as make a bomb or gun – will not be published on the Metacafe web site, as these do not meet our general content standards. Any such videos that may have previously been accepted into Producer Rewards® have been removed from the program and the site and are not eligible for re-publication on the site.

• Additionally, in the interest of delivering an exceptional entertainment experience well-suited to a large and diverse audience, we will be actively encouraging video creators to stretch their creative muscles and discouraging people from submitting “copycat” videos.

• Specifically, we will not accept videos into the Producer Rewards® program that are substantially similar to another video already in the program.
• We are also adding a “trends exhausted” page to the web site that will specify video themes that we are choosing to retire from the Producer Rewards® program on the basis that we have enough of a particular type of content and are receiving community complaints indicating viewer fatigue. This list will be updated regularly, so you may want to check it before producing or submitting your next video to Metacafe. The current list of exhausted trends is available here.
  
• Note: Creators who submitted their work to the Producer Rewards® program prior to the public communication of an exhausted trend will not be impacted. But any submissions received after a theme is posted to the “trends exhausted” page will be automatically rejected from the program.

After a year of running the program, we’ve learned a lot to help us better bring the creative spirit of Producer Rewards® to life and ensure that the program supports our goals of delivering an exceptional entertainment experience to our 30 million unique monthly viewers worldwide and building Metacafe into a global media company focused on short-form video entertainment powered and programmed by the audience.

Our intent is to maintain clear and transparent acceptance criteria so that video creators know what content is most likely to succeed. We are committed to making decisions that are consistent, fair and serve the shared best interests of our producers, viewers and advertisers. You’ll also notice in the full description of the program that we do reserve the right to make exceptions for exceptional videos.

We operate in a dynamic environment, and it is likely that we will introduce additional changes to the Producer Rewards® program in the future, which we will communicate as clearly and quickly as possible.