What YouTube Partner Network is Best For Gaming?

In our last installment of our new content creator support series, we discussed the world of YouTube partnership and speculated on whether or not it is “worth it” for content creators to partner with an MCN (multi-
channel network). This next comparison will look into the top YouTube partner networks for gaming channels, pitting Curse vs. Fullscreen, Polaris, Broadband, and more. Remember that we are a leading sponsor of streamers and YouTubers in the gaming space, and we're always open to more partnerships.

What Does an MCN YouTube Partner Network Do For You?

All MCNs have a few key items in common. When researching each partner network, you'll find that most talk about rights acquisition, channel growth, revenue share percentages, direct advertising sales, and lock-in contracts (we'll discuss this toward the end).

First and foremost, a gaming MCN will bypass the requirement of submitting usage rights to YouTube for monetizing content. To this end, users monetizing in-game footage will no longer need to prove to YouTube that they are doing so within Fair Use (something that's getting harder to do each year). An MCN grants you immediate monetization, and a good MCN will help support you in the event a copyright claim is issued.

Some networks, Curse included, also offer content promotion avenues whereupon partners can submit their gaming content for display on Curse's much larger YouTube network. If accepted for display, partners achieve wider global reach than possible on their own, theoretically growing their subscriber count at a faster pace. Note that not all content is accepted, as each network has thousands of partners and only has so much room for your promotion.

MCNs also use revised dashboards. YouTube's Analytics panel is very powerful these days, but MCNs may offer additional metrics on merchandizing sales (handled through the MCN) and year-over-year growth.

None of these advantages are free, though. You're splitting your revenue with the partner network in exchange for their services.

Sharing Your Revenue – Be Careful How Much You Sign Away

YouTube channels that are independent and partnered directly with YouTube will have the highest AdSense earning potential, reportedly split at 55% / 45% (favoring the creator). Most MCNs will have a baseline revenue share, but all should be negotiated with (see below).

With Fullscreen, the baseline revenue share is 80/20 favoring the creator, so now you're taking 80% of 55%, in other words, you're taking a hit and will receive 44% of the total AdSense revenue. The rest goes to Fullscreen and YouTube.

Curse offers one of the highest baseline rev shares out there, boasting 90/10 – a very fair offer, granting the publisher nearly 50% of total revenue. Curse is significantly smaller than Fullscreen, though, and this may impact direct ad sales (discussed below) and overall RPM / CPM of the channel.

Polaris is the king of all gaming YouTube networks, originally known as TGS (The Game Station). Polaris is owned by Maker, another MCN, but is specifically targeted for gaming channels (so advertising will be better correlated with gaming content, which means higher CTR and higher payout). Polaris is notoriously inclusive and difficult to get in, and as such, we're currently unsure of their revenue share (likely individually negotiated) and contract terms.

Direct Sales Could Make Up for Lower Share of Revenue

Each of these networks has dedicated sales teams that spend their days selling video advertisements directly to buyers. Because these networks can tell advertisers that their content is highly-targeted (“our network is 100% gamers, so your ad will be more effective”), advertisers may be willing to pay more than the AdSense pool of ads. In cases where MCNs have more successful ad teams and a smaller community of partners to share those ads with (Polaris), partners will benefit from higher overall revenue (RPM).

Few networks promise that their ad sales will make up for their cut of the revenue directly, but will normally point toward their channel growth opportunities as an indirect means to recoup the share (in their minds, you grow faster, so you make more money faster – even if it's less raw cash).

Lock-ins & Contracts

Please don't sign the first draft of a contract. When you're handed a contract, look for the big “screwed over” items to prevent it from happening to you:

• Lock-ins. Don't sign a lock-in, or if you do, don't sign it for longer than 3-6 months. Any longer than this is effectively perpetuity as far as “business time” is concerned. Always try to negotiate a network down to a shorter lock-in. Always. Chose something extreme, then expect them to meet half-way.
• Revenue share. You should always try to negotiate a higher revenue share – be realistic and respectful, but don't disrespect yourself, either. Ask for 90/10 from most networks and see where they settle.
• Ownership. Make sure – in explicit writing – you retain ALL ownership, 100%, of your content, channel, business, and earned revenue.

Negotiate back-and-forth with your networks, then sign once you're happy. And remember, there's no harm in waiting until later if no one is satisfactory. You will have greater leverage in negotiations if waiting until your channel is larger.

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