YouTube adjusted its internal view count numbers, netting content partners participating in the revenue sharing program up to five percent more in advertising money. Good news for the likes of French Maid TV creator Tim Street, who quipped in the comments of the TV Week article, "I love it when mistakes are made in my favor!" But Street still won't be earning the kind of money he used to make with Revver. So the question remains: five percent of what?

Because while Avril Lavigne's manager Terry McBride believes the company owes him $2 million, even he admits that the calculations which produced that number are largely theoretical. The $15 CPM McBride estimates YouTube commands seems optimistic based on previously reported numbers.

It also makes me wonder about YouTube's notoriously unreliable metrics — if YouTube can't figure out how many advertising impressions it sold in order to remunerate content creators, advertisers should be skeptical of any data the company provides on inventory available, impressions delivered and demographics reached.

Contact information for this author is not available.