content: Youtube/Google ought to just set up a platform for the creators themselves to pay for the ability to display their content at higher qualities, and spread the co  ffa  st of the bandwidth this way. Also base fees on the amount of total bandwidth you were consuming, like you were hosting your own site. You're basically treating Youtube as a proper host now and forcing people to pay for the bandwidth they would by otherwise making their own sites, in this case they're paying for your brand and your traffic. It's like paying higher rent to be on the hot street in town versus the outskirts. The "create for free" bullshit worked to build their brand, but they have the market cornered now. This would also create a much better ad market on the youtube platform. Creators could independently contract with their own advertisers. Oh wait, then they couldn't broadly censor like they do now, other than to outright deny you a contract. If you aren't a "vetted" creator, you get the ads you are given and basic vid quality, and they can just censor you at any point, on the premise that they are protecting their advertisers.