Public Watch Hours

The tier that unlocks ad revenue asks for 1,000 subscribers plus either 4,000 public watch hours in the last 365 days or 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days. The lower fan-funding tier asks for 500 subscribers, three uploads in 90 days, and either 3,000 public watch hours or 3 million Shorts views.

Only long-form and live stream viewing counts towards the hours. Shorts hours do not, and neither does time watched while a video sat unlisted or private. Deleting old uploads to tidy a channel takes their hours out of the rolling total along with them.