Metacafe has changed the payment conditions of its Producer Rewards program, lowering the the amount paid to video creators by more than half. According to a post on Metacafe’s blog today, under the new terms, producers accepted into the program will earn $2 for every 1,000 views. Previously, producers were paid $5 for every 1,000 views.

Additionally, Metacafe now explicitly excludes views from outside the U.S. from counting toward those producer rewards. So producers will only get that two bucks when 1,000 views from within the U.S. are reached. These new payment terms start Nov. 1 and will affect both new and existing program participants.

Echoing (almost the exactly) the words on the blog post, Michelle Cox, Metacafe’s communication director, told me in a phone interview, “The change is all about better aligning the program costs with our revenues. We are continuing to make sure that we are running the business in a prudent fashion.” Cox also said that Metacafe had been subsidizing the Producer Reward program quite heavily up until this change.

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