iWorld
YouTube introduces new initiatives to help creators earn more
MUMBAI: For young artists and aspiring entrepreneurs across the globe, YouTube has been nothing short of a revolution. While advertising has been the major source of revenue for YouTube’s creator community, the Google-owned site now wants to go beyond ads. The tech giant has started working on new tools to enable creators to make more money.
YouTube’s ‘Sponsorship’ feature has now been rebranded to ‘Channel Membership’. Consumers can pay a monthly recurring fee of $4.99 to get unique badges, new emojis, members-only posts in the Community tab, along with access to customised perks offered by creators. Earlier, this feature was limited to select YouTube channels only. This feature will soon be expanded to every eligible channel that commands 100,000 subscribers.
While merchandising may not be a new concept for the YouTube community, the company has partnered with Treespring to help creators design and sell products on the platform. In a tab under the video itself, creators can now offer t-shirts, hats, phone cases or any one of the 20 merchandise items.
To help publishers build better engagement with consumers, YouTube has introduced Premieres, a new way to upload content.
“With Premieres, creators will be able to debut pre-recorded videos as a live moment. When creators choose to release a Premiere, we’ll automatically create a public landing page to build anticipation and hype up new content,” the company said in a blog post.
For the first time ever, creators can use Super Chat and take advantage of Channel Membership perks on traditional YouTube uploads. These were previously available on Live Videos.
“We hope these tools help creators build a stronger community and earn more money while doing it, because when they succeed, the entire YouTube community thrives,” the blog read.
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MUMBAI: If cricket were a binge-worthy series, this one just dropped its most explosive pilot yet. The opening weekend of the 2026 edition of the Indian Premier League has come out swinging, smashing records across both television and digital platforms and reaffirming the tournament’s unmatched pull in India’s sporting and media landscape.
Backed by two high-octane matches featuring 200-plus run chases, the tournament delivered a combined reach of over 515 million viewers across linear TV and digital platforms via JioStar’s broadcast ecosystem, including Star Sports and JioHotstar. More tellingly, engagement surged alongside reach, with total watch-time hitting 32.6 billion minutes, a sharp 26 per cent jump over the opening weekend of the previous season.
The numbers reveal a deeper shift in how India watches cricket. Connected TV (CTV) consumption rose by 30 per cent, while peak concurrency on digital platforms jumped 61 per cent, signalling a growing appetite for shared, big-screen streaming experiences. On traditional television, the momentum held strong, with TV ratings (TVR) climbing 24 per cent compared to earlier seasons’ opening matches.
A key driver of this spike has been the evolution of the viewing experience itself. This season introduced differentiated feeds, most notably a Hindi CTV broadcast featuring cricketing voices such as Ravichandran Ashwin, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag and Irfan Pathan. Blending expert analysis with a watch-along format, the feed has added a conversational, almost second-screen feel without requiring viewers to leave their screens.
According to JioStar CEO for Sports Ishan Chatterjee, at the opening weekend underscores not just scale but also the depth of engagement that live cricket continues to command. He noted that the combination of large-screen viewing and digital interactivity is creating a more immersive and personalised experience, while also delivering tangible outcomes for brand partners.
From the league’s perspective, the early numbers point to a tournament that continues to reinvent itself. Arun Singh Dhumal, Chairman of the IPL, said the strong start reflects how high-quality cricket paired with enhanced viewing formats is resonating with audiences nationwide, while Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Devajit Saikia highlighted the “quality of engagement” as a key takeaway, not just the scale.
Commercially too, the opening weekend signals robust advertiser confidence. The broadcast is led by co-presenting sponsors including Google (Search AI Mode), Campa Energy, and Havells & Lloyd, alongside co-powered partners such as Birla Opus, Hero Motocorp and Amazon. A long tail of associate sponsors from OpenAI and Asian Paints to Flipkart and Amul further reflects the league’s unmatched ability to aggregate advertiser interest at scale.
Taken together, the opening weekend numbers are less a spike and more a statement. With 515 million viewers, 32.6 billion minutes of watch-time, and double-digit growth across formats, IPL 2026 has not just started strong, it has set the tone for a season that looks poised to push the boundaries of both sport and spectacle.
