YouTube Turns Off Ad Revenue For Fake Movie Trailer Channels After Deadline Investigation
The Google-owned video-hosting giant has turned off ad revenue on Screen Culture and KH Studio trailers after a Deadline investigation chronicled the scale and sophistication of their output.
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Deadline analyzed how Screen Culture is creating trailers that closely immitate official marketing material for franchises like The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Superman, but splices in AI imagery to tease irresistible details about a movie that appeal to their giant fandoms.
KH Studio, meanwhile, imagines outlandish versions of major films and series, including a James Bond movie starring Henry Cavill and Margot Robbie, and a Squid Game season with Leonardo DiCaprio .
Our deep dive revealed that instead of protecting copyright on these videos, a handful of Hollywood studios, including Warner Bros. Discovery and Sony, are secretly asking YouTube to ensure that the ad revenue from the AI-heavy videos flows in their direction. The studios declined to comment.
Now YouTube has suspended Screen Culture and KH Studio from its partner program for violating monetization policies, meaning they can't earn ad revenue from the videos they produce. They can appeal YouTube's decision.
YouTube's monetization policies state that if creators are borrowing material from others, 'you need to change it significantly to make it your own.' It adds that vidoes must not be 'duplicative or repetitive' and should not be made for the 'sole purpose of getting views.'
Furthermore, YouTube misinformation policies prohibit content that has been technically manipulated or doctored in a way that misleads viewers.
Screen Culture has been approached for comment. KH Studio's founder said the intention of the channel is to entertain with 'what if' ideas rather than mislead viewers.
'I've been running KH Studio full-time for over three years now, putting everything into it. It's tough to see it grouped under 'misleading content' in the demonetization decision, when my goal has always been to explore creative possibilities – not to misrepresent real releases,' they added.
Deadline asked YouTube a series of questions about how its algorithm boosts fake movie trailers, as well as how Screen Culture vidoes outrank official trailers in search results. YouTube declined to comment.
In an interview with Deadline, Screen Culture founder Nikhil P. Chaudhari said he oversees a team of a dozen editors, who create as many as 12 videos a week based on his instructions.
Screen Culture's views and subscribers have more than doubled in the past two years to 1.4B and 1.4M respectively. The success has translated into millions of dollars of ad revenue, though India-based Chaudhari was coy about exactly how much he is earning.
He said most YouTube users understand that Screen Culture is not stocked with official videos and that people can find the legitimate trailer by searching for the official channel. For those who are fooled by his trailers, Chaudhari said: 'What's the harm?'
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